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APPLICATION AND 
ACHIEVEMENT 


ESSAYS 


J. HAZARD HARTZELL 


THE LIBRARY 
lor CONGRESS 

i WASHINGTON 


EDITED BY HIS SONS 





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G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 

97 West Twenty-third St. 27 King William St., Strand 

®be ILiiekerbocker |)rf88 
1891 


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COPYRIGHT 1891 
BY 

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 


Ube ftntcfeerbocfter press, ‘fflew jflorfc 

Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by 
G. P. Putnam’s Sons 


TO OUR SISTER 


CORINNE HARTZELL BENT 

WHOSE VIRTUES AND GRACES 
TYPIFIED TO US AN IDEAL WOMANHOOD 


THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED 






PREFACE. 


We have selected these Essays from the 
writings of our Father, and offer this volume 
as the first of his posthumous works. 

In assuming the responsibility of preparing 
these Essays for publication, we have thought 
best to eliminate foot-notes and references, 
which we feel would tend to burden the reader 
and mar the symmetry of the page. 

We are conscious that these omissions may 
sometimes be unwise, and we fear that errors 
may have crept into the text. But if such be 
the case we believe the reader will be generous, 
and remember that the hand which guided the 
pen over these pages is folded on the unmoving 
bosom, and the eye that would best have over¬ 
seen the preparation of these Essays for the 
press is closed forever. 

Albert Ankeny Hartzell, 
Frederick Bassett Hartzell. 


Buffalo, May, 1891. 





























































. 







































CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I. Genius .i 

II. Character .32 

III. Currents. 63 

IV. Manners 95 

V. Opportunity. 125 

VI. Honor .. 153 

VII. Adversity . . . . . . .182 

VIII. Letters.210 

IX. Attainment 


240 












APPLICATION AND 
ACHIEVEMENT. 


GENIUS. 

Man finds a charm in contemplating the 
works of those endowed with the attributes 
of genius. He lingers with an unbroken in¬ 
terest over the productions of those who have 
given a charm to poetry and a splendor to 
history, a power to machinery and a fascination 
to discovery. He contemplates with inexpres¬ 
sible delight the orations and paintings, the 
inventions and buildings, which have not only 
interested but stirred the people. He is kindled 
into a glow of enthusiasm ; and with intuitive 
admiration for greatness, he bows with sponta¬ 
neous reverence at the shrines of genius. 

He is worked upon by an invisible power, 
becomes oblivious to contiguous surroundings, 
then climbs into a great sphere of life and 
thought with some one whose glowing coun- 



2 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tenance gives heart and whose transcendent 
ability smooths the way. He is ushered into 
the revered presence of those who have risen 
above the common routine of toiling and think¬ 
ing, and who, dressed in celestial livery, seem 
to live on Olympus, to be on good terms with 
Jupiter, and to drink nectar with the gods. 

Genius is distinguished by extraordinary 
ability. The man of genius is a man of un¬ 
common brilliancy. Genius exhibits its power 
in the prominent development of an important 
faculty. The exercise of this faculty renders 
its possessor eminent and illustrious. The genius 
of Shakespeare is seen in his faculty of deline¬ 
ation ; the genius of Beethoven, in his faculty 
of composition. We see the genius of Milton 
in poetry, and the genius of Copernicus in 
astronomy. The world adores genius in the 
acting of Garrick, and in the painting of Buo¬ 
narroti. It sees the power of genius in the 
speeches of Chatham and the sermons of Mas¬ 
sillon. The genius of Caesar and Hannibal is 
witnessed in their marvellous faculty of attract¬ 
ing and governing men, of planning campaigns 
and drilling armies, and throwing them into 
battle with nerves of iron. They saturated 
their armies with their spirit; they not only 
disciplined them, but they absorbed them ; and 


GENIUS. 


3 


a hundred thousand soldiers became individu¬ 
alized into a Caesar or a Hannibal. 

We once saw a painting representing Bona¬ 
parte charging with his cavalry at the battle of 
Leipsic. The painting in outline and detail was 
admirable. Bonaparte was leading the charge, 
and all seemed to be endowed, for the occasion, 
with the greatness of his genius; rushing on 
like a storm with crashing thunder. Not only 
the riders but the horses were animated and 
impelled by the spirit of this renowned captain. 
With their flashing eyes, their sounding hoofs, 
their nostrils opening with terrible grandeur, 
and their manes swept by the wild winds of 
battle and commotion, we listened with uneasi¬ 
ness for the shock. The entire movement was 
Napoleonic, and showed the multiplied power 
of Genius. A thousand clouds were massed 
into a fearful storm ! 

Genius is the presiding divinity. It does not 
fill the office of a subaltern, but a sovereign. 
It is greater than Talent, though it is often 
confounded with it. 

Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited ; Genius, 
being the action of reason and imagination, rarely or never.— 
Coleridge. 

Talent copies and stirs the world with activity; 
Genius originates and fills the world with 


4 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


wonder. Talent waits for models and dia¬ 
grams ; Genius, guided by intuition and thrilled 
with inspiration, waits for nothing. Talent fol¬ 
lows the line of argument and the thread of 
induction; Genius spreads its wings and flies to 
the desired object, and becomes its possessor. 

The prevailing notion is that those of eminent 
genius can accomplish any thing without study 
and labor. The general opinion is that they 
can compose and invent, design and execute, 
without earnest application. But instead of 
this they have been men of profound study 
and untiring industry. With inflexible courage 
they have worked till they have risen from 
places most obscure to places most conspicuous. 
They have often been necessitated to contend 
against indigence and vituperation, jealousy 
and opposition ; rising with a resolution which 
could not be broken, with an energy which 
could not be crushed, and with an enthusiasm 
which gave a glow to the countenance when 
the world was dark. Those works which ex¬ 
hibit the power and glory of genius have been 
struck from the mind when this planet, with 
its crowded markets and giddy speculations, 
was forgotten, and the silent retreat was lighted 
with the candles of thought. 

Willmott, the elegant writer, says that 


GENIUS. 


5 


genius easily hews out the figure from the 
block, but the sleepless chisel gives it life. 
Men by study evolve great thoughts; but to 
embody these in paint, in stone, in iron, or in 
language, requires often patient effort. It is 
impossible to calculate the amount of labor 
that men have spent in perfecting their theories 
and inventions. A noted author says that 
when a friend complimented a favorite poet 
on one of his beautiful verses, and remarked 
that it must have slipped from his pen as by 
magic, he replied that it cost him days and 
weeks of labor and attrition before it would 
come. 

It is said that Virgil used to spend weeks 
and months in shaping and adorning the few 
lines he would write in a single morning; and 
that Buffon used to repeat his sentences over 
and over till his ear was satisfied with their 
cadence. Adam Smith was ten years in pro¬ 
ducing his “Wealth of Nations”; Gibbon 
was twelve years in completing his great work 
on the Roman Empire; and Littleton was 
twenty years in writing the “Life of Henry 
the Second.” 

When a great work is produced by which 
society is to be benefited, it is the result of 
labor reaching through a series of trials and 


6 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


conflicts, and sometimes crowding long years. 
Montesquieu, the eminent author, in speaking 
to a friend concerning his writings, declared 
that they cost him that amount of labor which 
whitened his hair. Meyerbeer, the distin¬ 
guished composer, gave to the study pf music 
fifteen hours a day; and in subsequent years 
his genius shone forth in his magnificent operas. 

We look with admiration upon the oak, the 
monarch of the forest. Its acorns are dropped 
by the wind which wrestles with its branches. 
Its leaves and fruit were not produced in a 
moment, but were unfolded by a season of 
labor. The unseen forces were at work upon 
it through the long reign of winter, when the 
storms were sweeping over the seas and whiten¬ 
ing the hills. The majestic monarch, without 
a leaf in his crown, was at work when the 
snow was in the clouds, drawing nourishment 
out of the soil and vigor out of the air, and 
when spring began to warm the skies, fill the 
streams, and tune the birds, the oak burst into 
beauty and glory. 

So we admire the power and brilliancy of 
genius when it flashes upon us like a full orb 
from the firmament of history. We admire its 
labors and triumphs in various departments, 
where we are sometimes astounded and some- 


GENIUS. 


7 


times entranced. But we must remember, 
though no show was made before genius was 
crowned, there’ were deep study and great 
activity going on for years ; and it is impossible 
to relate how often the brain has faltered and 
fallen back from its work, with its powers ex¬ 
hausted. Some of the faculties were kept in 
exercise upon some marvellous creation or sub¬ 
lime theory till perfection was attained, and 
then genius went forth overpowering and at¬ 
tracting all. 


Many a genius has been of slow growth. Oaks that flour¬ 
ish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a 
reed.— Lewes. 

The fire of thought had been burning within 
for years, fanned by currents of incitement and 
inspiration, increasing in brilliancy and intens¬ 
ity, till, like lightning from its hidden chamber, 
it flamed out with power and splendor. A 
new truth is revealed, a new poem is written, 
a new picture is painted, a new statue is carved, 
a new invention is originated, a new country 
is discovered, and there is a sensation among 
the people ; editors write upon it with a kindling 
enthusiasm, orators speak upon it with a stir¬ 
ring eloquence, and the early neglect of the 
world turns into lasting praise. 


8 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Thus do men of genius succeed by profound 
study and assiduous labor. We do not believe 
it is possible for the great bulk of mankind to 
gain equal triumphs with equal opportunities. 
They will, of course, succeed in their spheres 
with their various orders of talent by comply¬ 
ing with these required conditions. But genius 
is born, not made ; depending not upon form 
and design, it originates and executes according 
to its own fascinating ideals. 

Genius must be born, and never can be taught. 

Dryden. 

Madame de Stael writes that genius is essen¬ 
tially creative ; it bears the character of the in¬ 
dividual who possesses it. 

Thucydides, in reference to this subject, said 
that genius was rather a pattern to others 
than an imitator of them. Genius, as before 
remarked, does not imitate, but originates, as 
in the works of Millet and Rembrandt, Verdi 
and Wagner. No amount of study and labor 
would bring the masses up to that point of 
ideal presence and instantaneous conception, 
where they might write with Byron and 
Shelley, or paint with Murillo and Correggio. 
The ideal presence is flashed upon the mind in 
a moment, and the wonderful conception comes 
with the beat of the pulse, when there is no 


GENIUS. 


9 


strain upon the mental powers. How often 
have men of genius felt the magic power of 
some ideal beauty or character, and have been 
thrilled with the sudden conception of some 
great truth or force, when there has been no 
marshalling of the mental energies. 

Think of the ideal forms of beauty and sub¬ 
limity which flashed through the thought of 
Dante and Milton, Titian and Rubens, when 
in all probability no faculty was strained, no 
power was exercised. Think, too, of the mighty 
conception of those renowned characters, Ham¬ 
let and Macbeth, Othello and Lear, which 
came to the celebrated dramatist, when in all 
likelihood the intellectual energies were relaxed 
and the great mind was passive. But the exe¬ 
cution of these forms and the delineation of 
these characters doubtless required brain-sweat 
and unflagging energy, combined with that 
glowing enthusiasm which makes difficult labor 
a pleasure. 

Men of mechanical methods will not exhibit 
much warmth in any work which may engage 
their attention. They rely on models and 
figures, on memory and observation, and they 
have but little sympathy with those who are 
endeavoring to realize fascinating ideals and to 
execute sublime conceptions. They work in 


10 APPLICATION' AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

wood and stone, give shape to brass and iron, 
cultivate lands and trees, traffic in the market 
and wander o’er the ocean, leaving others to 
invent the machine, to paint the picture, to 
write the poem, and to pronounce the oration. 
They are the men of ability and character, 
toiling amid brick walls, giving impulse and 
vigor to business and progress, and they con¬ 
stitute the strong arm of the nation, and the 
mighty bulwark of its defence. Out of this 
dominion of labor and traffic where Talent and 
Virtue counterbalance opposing forces, and 
guide the world in its orbit of destiny, men 
of genius come to move the heart of Society. 

A sagacious writer calls attention to the fact 
that it was the opinion of Beccaria that all 
men might be poets and orators; and of Rey¬ 
nolds, that all men might be painters and 
sculptors. He also refers to the fact that Helve- 
tius and Diderot believed that the masses had 
an equal aptitude for genius, and with equal 
opportunity they might show it. While we 
believe that opportunity and industry are the 
necessary adjuncts of success, we agree with 
this stimulating author that without original 
endowment of brain and heart no amount 
of labor would lift man to the plane of genius. 
It is not possible for the multitude to sing like 


GENIUS. 


II 


Homer and Virgil, to paint like Leonardo and 
Raphael, to build the verse like Tasso and 
Schiller, to succeed in statuary like Michael 
Angelo, or excel in philosophy like Francis 
Bacon. 

Again, men of spacious genius, with their 
imaginative powers in full play, are enthusiastic 
in their pursuits. They drift into the realm of 
the ideal, and their smothered interest, struck 
by a current of inspiration, breaks into a strong 
flame of enthusiasm. Disraeli shows with great 
force how such men feel the reality of their 
creations, and refers to Dante as lingering amid 
the frightful abysses of his Inferno, and his 
lines as moving with the terror and sublimity 
of that hopeless dominion ; and to Milton who 
seemed to luxuriate in the beauty and freshness 
of his Eden, and to realize and enjoy the over¬ 
powering grandeur he threw into his impress¬ 
ive numbers. 

Such men feel the reality of their ideals and 
conceptions, and they labor with earnestness and 
enthusiasm. Those who occupy the studio or 
rostrum, the pulpit or laboratory, with indiffer¬ 
ence and sluggishness, never arouse the masses 
by the magnetism of their efforts. When they 
write or paint, carve or speak, philosophize or 
experiment, they must have energy and sym- 


12 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


pathy in order to impress the people. Consider 
what Fielding says in regard to the profound 
sympathy of the author, and what Ruskin says 
in relation to the living interest of the artist: 
moving the reader and the spectator by their 
genuine enthusiasm. Consider further the 
statement of Metastasio and Alfieri in regard 
to their flow of tears, as they wrote their pathetic 
passages with imagination stirring and enthu¬ 
siasm glowing. 

And Raphael must have painted with this 
depth of feeling, this pulse of energy ; for Rey¬ 
nolds, alluding to the Transfiguration, declares 
that when he stood looking at that picture his 
thoughts carried him away, and that for the 
time being he might have been looked upon as 
an enthusiastic madman, for he could really 
fancy the whole action was passing before his 
eyes. 

This is the magnetic influence of all the 
celebrated productions which bear the impress of 
genius. The fervor and enthusiasm of great 
men in their noblest efforts are infused into our 
own hearts; and then we come under their 
royal sceptres. As the glowing ember sets fire 
to all combustible matter which comes in con¬ 
tact with it, so the thought of the poet and 
painter, the composer and orator, kindles the 


GENIUS. 


n 


nobler feelings of all who come within the 
sweep of their inspiring influence. 

Men of genius and inspiration are always 
ardent and energetic, and this gives freshness 
and power to their productions. A certain 
writer declares that Phidias and Zeuxis were 
both transported by the same enthusiasm which 
gave life to all their works. We know with 
what interest and ardor Pythagoras studied 
philosophy and Demosthenes elocution, Par- 
rhasius followed painting and Archimedes 
mathematics. Horace declares that an ardor 
of soul attacked him in blooming youth and 
drove him in a fury to the writing of nimble¬ 
footed iambics. 

Me quoque pectoris 
Tentavit in dulci juventa 
Fervor, et in celeres iambos, 

Misit furentem. —Ode xvi. 

Those who have this ardor and activity in 
their pursuits seem to have no concern about 
the fortunes or adversities of this life. They do 
not live in the world of material interests and 
clashing elements. They soar beyond the fur¬ 
row and the workshop, and find a throb of 
pleasure in the sweep of imagination, putting 
into verse and stone the beautiful and noble. 
The interest and determination in their pur- 


14 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


suits sometimes lead them to places of study 
and observation, where danger threatens and 
destruction yawns. We see this exhibited in 
the operations of Pliny, the historian, as it is 
related, who had the courage to approach the 
heaving volcano to describe its hidden won¬ 
ders ; and Vernet, the artist, who in a fearful 
storm on the angry main, studied with delight 
the wave that rose to engulph the vessel. 

Genius is the flint which carries its own 
spark. It has feet for the earth and wings for 
the air. It puts its hand on laws and truths by 
intuition. It invents, it discovers, it achieves, it 
startles. It gives brains and hands to machinery. 
It makes the canvas glow and the marble 
speak. It interprets the language of the clouds 
and the waves. It puts a living spirit within the 
looms and the wheels. It paints with sunlight 
and writes with electricity. It awakes the sleep¬ 
ing quarries of earth, and travels with the white 
wings of steam. It grasps the ideal and then 
gives the real in numerous triumphs. It touches 
the sunny dreams of the soul by the wand of 
creative energy, and they are crystallized into 
immortal poems. It is a divine lamp in a 
shadowy world, and its rays fall upon things 
which have been obscure and hidden since the 
human race began. 


GENIUS. 


15 

The ardor and perseverance of genius carry¬ 
forward all great work. It is a flood which 
scoops out new channels, and flows through 
new sections. It is the sun which warms the 
world of thought and feeling, and brings it into 
bloom. It is the power which removes the 
obstacles and barriers over which mankind have 
been perplexed and disheartened. It levels the 
mountains of error, bridges the rivers of super¬ 
stition, and makes a highway for Knowledge 
and Liberty to march with banners and music. 
It reaps victory out of defeat, gives heart and 
strength to the world’s toilers and benefactors, 
and writes Hope on the black gates of Tyranny 
and Despair. It is not the body of stagnant 
water which fills the atmosphere with a deadly 
malaria, but the impetuous mountain torrent 
which grows into a swaying, majestic river, calls 
prosperous cities upon its banks, turns the pon¬ 
derous wheels of a thousand mills, and then 
rushes into a stainless and restless sea. 

Further, genius passes from the actual to the 
possible. It beholds in the granite and marble, 
unchiselled and unshaped, the temple and the 
statue. The mysteries and wonders of earth 
have been locked in secrecy around them, and 
fire and flood have worked with tireless ener¬ 
gies upon their flinty deposits. The thought- 


16 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


less and obtuse might view them as so many 
tons of shapeless stone, lifted from the quarry 
by the muscles of machinery. But the architect 
with marvellous insight sees, like Brunelleschi 
or Palladio, rising from them a beautiful temple. 
Or the sculptor with thrilling conception sees, 
like Ghiberti or Thorwaldsen, emerging from 
them a hidden statue, mingling the divine with 
the human. The artist has a vision, and, like 
Hiram Powers, he beholds in the marble the 
Greek Slave; or, like Harriet Hosmer, he sees 
in it the Palmyra Queen. 

And so here is a man thrown upon the high¬ 
way of mortality. He has been pushed into 
existence by some hidden power, like an obscure 
flower which catches the dust of the wheel. In 
his poverty and loneliness he may have the 
splendor of genius and the fragrance of virtue. 
The unthinking and inconsiderate may have no 
more interest in him, and no more regard for 
him, than if he were a speck of planet dust 
thrown from the friction wheel of nature. But 
those who have insight into character, supple¬ 
mented with sympathy and philanthropy, know 
the greatness and value of the hidden qualities 
of such men ; and they throw around them the 
sunshine of encouragement. Back of the vale 
of flesh there may be, locked in mystery, a 


GENIUS. 


1 7 


thinker like Cousin, a writer like Corneille, a 
preacher like Bourdaloue, or a ruler like Riche¬ 
lieu, waiting the season of quickening energy 
to emerge into the attractive flower of being. 

Genius copies in no vocation. It is original 
and potent. It is always clothed in simplicity. 
But out of this simplicity come sublimity and 
grandeur. The copyist is artificial, and under¬ 
stands nothing of the satisfaction which springs 
from the power to create. He is mechanical in 
his arrangement and execution ; and while he 
may be called elegant, he is never powerful. 
He may have the pleasure of succeeding as an 
imitator, but never the glory and honor of an 
originator. 

One may admire the fountain which plays 
among the trees and flowers on the common. 
It may be a fine work of art, and its waters 
flowing through artistic channels, with the colors 
of the rainbow woven in its spray, may produce 
a pleasing sensation upon the passing multi¬ 
tude. But here is the Niagara in its rugged 
simplicity, moving forward like an army whose 
cavalry are rushing, charging, shouting, and 
shaking their white plumes, exhibiting in its 
perfect freedom a sublime grandeur, sweeping 
over the awful precipice with an impetuous en¬ 
ergy, shaking the earth as with wheels of thun- 


1 8 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


der, and throwing up dense clouds of foam 
forever. 

The difference between the artificial and the 
natural is great beyond description. He who 
originates is natural, full of impulse and en¬ 
ergy, and has no anxious regard for glittering 
formalities. He who imitates is artificial, tries 
to follow in the grooves of custom and usage, 
and seeks to be influenced and governed by rules 
which have won public favor. He who creates 
is the master ; he who copies is the pupil. 

The actor who studies attitude and gesticu¬ 
lation, emphasis, and expression, without pos¬ 
sessing the spirit and genius of the character, 
may have charming voice and elegant form, but 
he will be mechanical and unnatural. The 
properties and arrangements of the stage may 
be brilliant and pleasing, but the acting will be 
destitute of spirit and power. An automaton 
in elegant wardrobe, moved by wires in the 
hands of an expert performer, would succeed 
as well as such a player. 

The actor who has the originality and en¬ 
thusiasm of genius gives blood and warmth to 
the character; and you can feel the beat of the 
heart whether it is under the garb of the mighty 
and noble, or the imbecile and treacherous. It 
is real to the spectator, because it is real to the 


GENIUS. 


19 


actor. Look at Talma and Betterton, at Kean 
and Forrest; or look at Booth and Macready, 
or at Kimball and Cushman. And mark how 
they hold the audience, breathless and spell¬ 
bound, as they sweep with unfettered natural¬ 
ness through scenes of terrible grandeur, till 
the pent-up feeling of the assembly breaks 
loose, and the building trembles with applause. 

And this holds true with regard to the law¬ 
yer and preacher, and all who endeavor to in¬ 
fluence the people by their utterance. They 
must be natural and simple in their manner 
and speaking, if they would be effective. When 
they attempt to imitate, they are mechanical, 
and throw off no magnetic energy. They may 
strut like a peacock, and spread the brilliant 
feathers of a labored rhetoric, but the perform¬ 
ance will appear not only artificial but disap¬ 
pointing. They must be natural and simple, 
not copying but creating, and moved by some 
of the insight and fervor so characteristic of 
genius. When a speaker thinks of his accent 
and gesture, his attitude and emphasis, his 
power is gone. He may be finished and ele¬ 
gant as a rhetorician, but not powerful and 
commanding as an orator. Behold the former 
in Hortensius and Edward Everett, and the 
latter in Pericles and Patrick Henry. 


20 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT, 


If eloquence, according to Demosthenes, is 
energy, and, according to Webster, is action, 
there must be an unyielding earnestness, hold¬ 
ing and swaying all the faculties and feelings 
of the speaker. The thought must burn. Elo¬ 
quence is thought heated and inspired, thought 
potent and sublime, thought rising towards 
heaven with wings of fire. 

To think and to feel constitute the two grand divisions of 
men of genius, the men of reasoning and the men of imagina¬ 
tion.— Disraeli. 

We are often astonished at the frowning 
obstacles which are overcome by the men who 
are swayed by a mighty purpose. It is related 
that Palissy, the noted inventor, seeing some 
ornamental pottery from Italy, applied himself 
in the most determined manner to discover the 
method of enamelling, which was brought to 
such a high state of perfection in that country. 
He devoted his whole life, regardless of labor 
and expense, with poverty and discouragement 
crossing his path and retarding his steps, to 
obtain this knowledge, with an enthusiasm 
amounting to infatuation. In spite of entreaty 
and reprobation on the part of friends, it is 
declared that he reduced himself and family to 
extreme penury, and after a fearful struggle he 
found the secret of the art. 


GENIUS . 


21 


The divine 

Insanity of noble minds, 

That never falters, or abates, 

But labors, and endures, and waits 
Till all that it foresees it finds, 

Or what it cannot find, creates. 

Longfellow. 

A certain writer says that Gonnelli of Volterra 
gave to the world, in the seventeenth century, 
the spectacle of a blind man who was an ac¬ 
curate sculptor. It seems that he executed 
not only his ideals, but faces which he knew 
by passing his hand over the features. Among 
the numerous likenesses which he left were 
those of Cosmo de Medici, and Charles the 
First of England. His hand threw the portrait 
on the mind, as the light throws the picture on 
the paper. Under the bidding of his potent 
genius the marble took the impression from his 
brain ; and the world had another statue to 
behold and admire. In his blindness and lone¬ 
liness what visions came to the soul of Gonnelli; 
and how they thrilled and animated him for 
his work, when his only light was the lamp of 
genius. 

Disraeli observes that philosophy becomes 
poetry, and science imagination in the enthu¬ 
siasm of genius. In studying the history of 
those who have distinguished themselves in 


22 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


philosophy and science, we are impressed with 
the interest and ardor which carried them for¬ 
ward. They not only gathered facts, har¬ 
nessed forces, and classified objects, but they 
swept the realm of the ideal, blended science 
with imagination, and clothed philosophy with 
enchantment. We see this exemplified in the 
labors of Copernicus and Newton, who walked 
the aisles of the firmament ; and in Linnaeus 
and Von Haller, who summoned the flowers of 
the fields and made them tell their names. We 
see it in the labors of Rawlinson and Champol- 
lion, erudite scholars, who deciphered the hiero¬ 
glyphics upon the obelisk and temple ; and of 
Werner, the eminent mineralogist, and Cuvier, 
the distinguished naturalist, who, transported 
with their pursuits, conducted the world into 
realms of beauty and wonder. 

And so with men of genius in all vocations 
and professions. What gives them success and 
renown but their glowing imagination and per¬ 
sistent industry. What causes them to defy 
opposition and calumny, and to endure hard¬ 
ship and suffering but their profound convic¬ 
tions, and the strength which comes from their 
joyous labors. What keeps them studious and 
faithful, in spite of all opprobrium and detrac¬ 
tion, but their love of their work, which in the 


GENIUS. 


23 


ultimate is covered with the light of success. 
It is the fire of the soul which consumes 
adverse criticism and bitter animosity, and 
illuminates the mental building. And what 
are criticism and animosity but wretched ten¬ 
ants emerging from the gloomy chambers of 
envy and jealousy ! 

Look at the ardor which gave courage and 
endurance to the man who toiled in poverty 
and loneliness till he invented printing, and 
called eulogiums from the great and good. 
Look at the ardor which glowed like an ember 
in the breast of the man who struggled against 
difficulties and discouragements, till he con¬ 
structed the steamboat, and rang praises from 
the wisest and noblest. Look at the ardor 
which carried forward that earnest toiler and 
studious thinker against opposition and denun¬ 
ciation, till finally the telegraph was invented, 
and thought went along the wire with the 
velocity of lightning. When the cloud opens 
its fountains there is no use to try to block the 
stream; your obstructing timbers will be swept 
away, and the water will laugh at your meddle¬ 
some presumption. 

It was earnestness which made Demosthenes 
so eloquent, and Cicero so captivating. It was 
earnestness which gave such controlling influ- 


24 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


ence to Mirabeau, and overwhelming power to 
Sheridan. It was earnestness which made the 
oratory of Bossuet so popular and resistless, 
and the oratory of Chalmers so magnetic and 
impressive. And what was it but this earnest¬ 
ness which made the eloquence of Whitefield 
so powerful and fascinating; eloquence which 
aroused the soul and accelerated the blood; 
eloquence which started Chesterfield from his 
seat, and which a noted historian walked twenty 
miles to hear; eloquence which swayed the 
multitude as the forest is swayed by a storm. 

Genius is fond of the marvellous and mys¬ 
terious, and sometimes rises to the dominion 
of the supernatural. Absorbed in profound 
meditation, and poring over a favorite study or 
a fascinating subject with an ardor that scales 
every frowning barrier, men of this class are 
lost to the world. In this state of mind they 
drop material interests, and seek communion 
with the supernatural; and often they imagine 
that the earthy and celestial are mingling to¬ 
gether with the rustling of angelic pinions. 

Zimmermann, with graphic ability, and Alger, 
with elegant diction, show the greatness of 
genius in solitude. It is said that Descartes, 
when secluded in the country, revolving mighty 
themes in his capacious mind, thought he heard 


GENIUS. 


25 


a voice in the Heavens calling him to pursue 
the search of truth. It is also said that Male- 
branche, when pursuing his philosophical stud¬ 
ies in the noiseless retreat, used to listen to the 
voice of the Infinite in the realm of the soul. 

Haydn, whose genius announced itself in 
music, was in the habit of striking his instru¬ 
ment in order to assist in tuning the powers of 
his soul. He composed his pieces with solemn 
fervor, and his notes swept from his mind 
with wondrous harmony. His symphonies were 
beautiful and impressive, and his achievements 
became a wonder and a glory. It is related 
that, some years before his career was finished, 
he was invited by a musical society to attend a 
concert in Vienna, where the Creation , one of 
his masterpieces, was rendered. The perform¬ 
ance on this occasion was magnificent; and it 
is reported that Haydn was so affected and 
overcome by the power and grandeur of this 
Oratorio that he swooned away and was carried 
out of the building. Doubtless this eminent 
composer realized all the beauty and power of 
this Oratorio when its unvoiced music came 
from his mind in the tranquil study, and In¬ 
spiration sat upon the countenance like a majes¬ 
tic presence. 

An anecdote, showing the power of music, 


26 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


when genius is the composer or performer, is 
related by George Sand. She was in company 
with the famous painter, Delacroix, and the 
brilliant musician, Chopin. While they were 
discussing the subject of painting, especially 
the principles of relief and reflection, Mickie- 
wicz, the poet, called ; and seating himself in 
the corner, begged Chopin, who was at the 
instrument, to continue, for he had been play¬ 
ing. George Sand says that a servant rushed 
into the room exclaiming the house was on 
fire; and that an hour was spent in extinguish¬ 
ing the flames. Delacroix and Chopin re¬ 
turned, looking for the poet; and they found 
him in the corner of the parlor where they had 
left him. The lamp had gone out. The com¬ 
motion of the fire had not disturbed the poet; 
nor had he discovered that he was alone ; for, 
captivated by the music, he was still listening 
to the performer. 

Genius, insulated and conspicuous, has sought 
the solitary retreat; and has there struggled 
and triumphed with the absorbing action of 
the faculties. Here there is no discord or 
rivalry to break the chain of induction, nor 
clog the wheel of fancy, where great truths are 
reached and learned philosophies are con¬ 
structed. Here there is no vulgar confusion 


GENIUS . 


27 


sweeping holy contemplation down from its 
white throne, around which are gathered the 
gems of poetry and the pearls of religion. We 
think of such men as Petrarch and Montesquieu 
quitting fashionable circles, and hurrying into 
unbroken seclusion to receive what the uni¬ 
verse was waiting to give. We think of such 
men as Jeremy Taylor and Richard Baxter 
going with hushed feet into the tranquil realm 
of study and prayer, and finding the hidden 
wealth of God. 

Genius does not stop to consult health or 
wealth, but pushes on in pursuit of the desired 
object. The work of such men becomes a pas¬ 
sion, a bark which takes them over threatening 
waves to auspicious shores. They find gratifi¬ 
cation and delight in their work, though mental 
powers become exhausted, and physical organs 
are smitten with disease. It weighs upon their 
minds, occupies their morning hours, and lin¬ 
gers in their midnight dreams. It is the wine 
cup from which they drink their inspiration ; 
the shining portal where they are clothed with 
power. 

And it was this intensity of labor, this eager¬ 
ness of pursuit, which covered the vision of 
Milton and Prescott with darkness, crushed the 
vigorous intellect of Hugh Miller, and sapped 


28 APPLICATION' AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

the rich life of Starr King when he was rallying 
a commonwealth to the defence of the republic. 
It was this which stopped the pulses of Kirke 
White and Henry Hadley, both brilliant and 
promising; and it was this which closed the 
career of John Keats, that transcendent poet, 
who in his terminating hour felt the flowers 
growing over him. 

It was this ardor and devotion which charac¬ 
terized the soldiers of Cromwell and Frederic, 
of Adolphus and Wellington. Witness the 
ardor and devotion of men for a masterly 
intellect and an imperial leader; men of com¬ 
manding talents and brilliant exploits, like Ney, 
the son of Mars; like Lannes and Dessaix, like 
Murat and Massena, who rushed into the con¬ 
flict like bolts from the cloud ! 

When in Paris some years since, we visited 
the great tomb of the renowned captain of 
Corsica, surrounded with pillars upon which 
are inscribed the names of some of his greatest 
battles; and we thought of those whirlwind 
marches which threw up the dust of decayed 
monarchies, and of that overpowering genius 
which swayed cabinets and hurled kingdoms 
into revolution and destruction, and gave to the 
heroic and meritorious in the ranks the baton of 
the marshal and the sceptre of the king! 


GENIUS . 


2Q 


No one can read the history of that illustrious 
navigator of Genoa, who was an ardent student 
at Lisbon, and who had lingered at the convent 
gate asking for bread for his hungry child, 
without being moved by the enthusiasm which 
carried him forward through all opposition and 
difficulty. The effort to demonstrate that the 
world was spherical, and contained lands un¬ 
known and unread, took him through scenes of 
indigence and mockery, disappointment and 
suffering. The night was tempestuous and 
dismal, but the flame of genius illumined the 
hour and guided the feet. His project was 
sublime, but he was spurned by the scholars 
and dynasties of Europe, until he was finally 
allowed a hearing before Ferdinand and Isabella. 
They, enraptured with his vision, furnished him 
with the small fleet which floated out from the 
harbor of Palos upon the unknown waters of 
the Atlantic. And, in spite of winds and 
storms, in spite of mutiny and despair, he 
sailed on with invincible courage, conquering 
and tumbling into the main every hideous dis¬ 
couragement, till at last, unwavering and confi¬ 
dent, he struck the shore of a new world. 

The grandest results have been influenced 
by that ardent effort which, like a flood, re¬ 
moves every disheartening obstruction. And 


30 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


without this devoted labor it is not possible for 
genius to triumph in those matters which tend 
to advance not only the fine arts but every 
mechanical contrivance. The spark of interest 
is swept into a flame of ardor, and then genius 
constructs its wheels, expresses its thought in 
wood and iron, transfers its dreams of beauty 
and sublimity to canvas and marble, and in¬ 
fuses its divine energy into the poem and the 
oration. This ardor gives courage and this 
labor gives success to all who are endowed 
with genius, going forward amid trials and suf¬ 
ferings to advance the interests of society. 
They are the world’s toilers and benefactors, 
often treading the path of gloom and hardship 
with hearts of faith and expectancy, and 
finally rising with joyous wing to the sublime 
heights of immortality. 

These are the men who are garlanded with 
scholarship, girded with fiery resolution, and in- 
sinewed with celestial energy. These are the 
men who often emerge from the untrumpeted 
dominion of lonely struggle with luminous 
faculties, moving like the planets in their 
circles, and shining for ever. These are the 
men of unyielding purpose and undaunted 
courage; mastering the elements of the uni¬ 
verse, and giving progress and glory to history 


GENIUS. 


31 


in their achievements. These are the men 
with mechanical insight, poetic fancy, inventive 
ability, and kindling utterance; pushing the 
great world out of the Winter of ignorance 
and despotism into the Summer of culture and 
freedom, where mankind gather the sheaves of 
Virtue, and drink at the springs of Knowledge. 


CHARACTER. 

The heart is the mainspring of all our im¬ 
pulses and actions. It rules our thoughts and 
loves, and decides what shall be our enactments 
and symbols. It gives tone to sentiment and 
individuality, and lifts man to his place in the 
workshop of the world. It is the director of 
our charities and reformations ; our advance in 
culture and morality. It not only colors dispo¬ 
sition and outlines deportment, but, according 
to its purity and education, it decides what 
shall be the character that shall stand like a 
statue in the corridors of history. 

Character is employed to denote the qualities 
and attributes which give man his personality 
and influence. It is the monument man carves 
out of the marble of life, and leaves for the in¬ 
spection and criticism of the world. As we 
estimate the value of a watch by the quality of 
the gold and work, and the time it keeps ; so we 
determine the character of man by the quality 
of his virtue and intellect, and the life he lives. 


32 


CHARACTER. 


33 


Men, in their efforts to receive the approba¬ 
tion of the multitude, have often confounded 
character with reputation. Character is the 
result of a true life ; reputation is often the 
result of external circumstances. Character is 
what a man makes and holds; reputation is 
often what the world makes and gives. The 
one is fine fruit valued in the market; the other 
is a dead leaf embellished for the occasion. 
Man is the stalk grown from the seed sown in 
the furrows of mortality. His character is the 
full corn in the ear brought forth by attentive 
cultivation ; his reputation is the tassel which 
bends with every breeze of public opinion. 

That reputation has been confounded with 
character history clearly unfolds. Men of repu¬ 
tation have appeared in the heavens of renown 
like orbs of wondrous magnitude. They have 
not been steady planets, throwing off floods 
of radiance, but impetuous comets, breathing 
flame and sputtering fire. With brilliant talents, 
they have achieved distinction; but lacking 
virtue and honor, and all the moral qualities 
which give force and grace to character, they 
flash their light across the sky, and are gone. 
These are the men of reputation, moving for¬ 
ward like proud ships on the sea of public 
opinion in favorable weather, but going down 
3 


34 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


when the black storms of opposition and ad¬ 
versity come with their wide-shaking thunders. 

But men of character, springing from the 
retreats of study and discipline, are not volatile 
or fluctuating. They have none of the reck¬ 
lessness and imbecility of those whose reputa¬ 
tion is ephemeral. They are men of principle 
and reliability, of solid virtue and regal power. 
They can be relied upon when the times 
become tumultuous and uncertain. They will 
stand like adamantine barriers against the 
dashing waters of danger and commotion. 
They are men not of soapstone, but of granite; 
holding not only grains of gold, but sparks of 
fire in their flinty natures. They may be 
struck by the arrows of animosity and defama¬ 
tion ; they will be uninjured, but the arrows 
will be broken. 

Character is the centrality, the impossibility of being dis¬ 
placed or overset. —Emerson. 

Where are the intolerant and malicious who 
shot their arrows at the great thinkers and the 
bold reformers ? Where are those who fol¬ 
lowed Kepler and Galileo with a bitter rancor, 
and visited Harvey and Jennerwith a relent¬ 
less persecution ? Where are those who 
sneered at Beethoven and Bach with a jealous 


CHARACTER. 


35 


hatred, and attacked Wordsworth and Keats 
with a malignant criticism ? They are gone, 
like the wasps that disappear with the summer. 
Their graves are unknown, and their names 
are forgotten. 

Men of character are the formidable cham¬ 
pions of what is right and the implacable 
enemies of what is wrong; hanging out no 
false lights when the storms come and the 
ships plunge. They resemble the mountains, 
which give fertility and beauty to the valleys, 
and birth to the springs of the rivers which 
float the crafts of a nation. They have been 
the advocates and defenders of virtue and 
justice ; guarding the interests of liberty and 
humanity, and opening the door of the prison 
in which truth has been confined. Such were 
Cincinnatus and Pythagoras, Wilberforce and 
Newton, Washington and Franklin; men who 
will live in history, because they were men of 
character. How such men differ in their influ¬ 
ence upon society and government from Nero 
and Caligula, Attila and Tamerlane. 

Character is the force which sways all 
important movements. It is the majestic 
power which rules in parliaments and cam¬ 
paigns. It resembles the mighty engine which 
moves the complicated machinery, with spirits 


36 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT 


among the wheels. It is the secret energy 
which attracts the noblest natures, and controls 
the stoutest intellects in all commendable 
activities. It gathers and presents the most 
amiable qualities of the mind and heart, as the 
diver comes with the most precious stones and 
brilliant gems. By these mankind are im¬ 
pressed, and they admire and eulogize the 
philanthropy which elevates society, and the 
patriotism which enthrones liberty. This 
philanthropy and patriotism, breaking from 
the modest vocation into heroic action, are 
exponents of the greatness and nobleness of 
character. 

When such a man comes on the earth, there 
is a feeling that Jupiter has descended from 
Olympus. We feel there is a noble presence 
among us, a man of regal qualities and sway¬ 
ing faculties. Such was the thought of those 
who looked upon the countenance of patriots, 
men girt with fire, like Miltiades and Leonidas ; 
of philanthropists, men moved by a divine 
sympathy, like Howard and Clarkson ; of legis¬ 
lators with wide learning and great ability, like 
Palmerston and Melbourne ; of statesmen, with 
capacious intellect and commanding presence, 
like Webster and Calhoun ; and of rulers who 
gained the esteem and devotion of the people, 


CHARACTER. 37 

like Frederic the Great, and Lincoln the Wise. 
Says the great bard : 

He sits ’mongst men like a descended god ; 

He hath a kind of honour sets him off ; 

More than a mortal seeming. 

A man may have the greatness of genius, or 
the greatness of character. If genius is the 
more brilliant, character is the more potent. 
If the former never fails to astonish, the latter 
never fails to overawe. If genius is followed 
by wonder and surprise, character is followed 
by admiration and respect. If the former fills 
the soul with amazement, the latter fills the 
heart with reverence. When the brilliancy of 
genius is united to the solidity of character, we 
have a personage of august dimensions. Re¬ 
pudiating offensive tradition and wearisome 
conformity, he moves the period by strokes of 
grandeur and puissance on the line of progress 
and humanity. 

Cousin remarks in substance that a great 
man is the best gift of the period, and that 
through him the period reveals its best thought. 
He has not only superiority of mind but 
benevolence of heart, and the world listens to 
his appeal and obeys his command. If he has 
the power to grapple with the most difficult 


38 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


problems in science and government, he has 
the philanthropy to contend against the hide¬ 
ous monsters of ignorance and cruelty. With 
a heart that feels for the burdened and dis¬ 
tressed, with probity and magnanimity among 
the cardinal principles which decide his action, 
with the greatness and potency of co-ordinate 
faculties which keep his thoughts and deeds in 
the widest orbit of usefulness, he labors and 
suffers for the good of mankind. Such men 
are the mountains in the dominion of history, 
buffeting the thunders of persecution, rising 
above the clouds of nescience and tyranny, and 
swelling the streams of learning and goodness. 

The greatness which is inspiring and uplift¬ 
ing springs from character. But there can be 
no character without the possession of moral 
virtues and the practice of moral principles. 
Character is the product of a noble nature un¬ 
folded and matured by study and discipline. 
It is the fruit of a tree brought to the highest 
cultivation and the greatest perfection, and is 
always popular and esteemed. We find no 
harvest in the season of frost and snow, when 
the fields are hard and the vines are bare. We 
find no character where there is no regard for 
virtue and justice, learning and morality. 
Character embodies the loftiest integrity, the 


CHARACTER. 


39 


widest philanthropy, with a love for what is just 
and right in institutions and workshops. Em¬ 
erson says that character is higher than intellect; 
and Lavater, that deeds, looks, words, and 
steps form the alphabet by which you may 
spell character. 

The desire for the respect of mankind is 
commendable. Such a desire indicates noble¬ 
ness of spirit and royalty of manhood. It 
reveals the mounting of ambition, without 
which there is no effort at improvement. With 
this desire there is a high sense of honor and 
probity, and man is willing to comply with the 
conditions of success and good-will in various 
callings. When there is no appreciation or 
estimate of this, man is being ruled by his 
animal instincts, and the spirit that is mani¬ 
fested in great deeds and magnificent acquire¬ 
ments is bound. 

The desire for approval and commendation 
is laudable. This approval and commendation 
are as favorable breezes, taking the ship over 
great seas to her destination. Xenophon de- - 
dares that the sweetest of all sounds is praise, 
and Menander advises man to wish rather to be 
well spoken of than to be rich. Fuller exhorts 
the individual to obtain and preserve a good 
name, if it were but for the public service; and 


40 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


even Iago, practising deliberate villainy, and 
conscious of the prevailing influence of a good 
name, exclaims : 


“ He that filches from me my good name, 
Robs me of that which not enriches him, 

And makes me poor indeed.” 


Where there is no regard for the esteem and 
confidence of mankind, no interest in the ad¬ 
vance of purity and goodness, the individual is 
pursued by the hounds of ruin. The spring of 
pride is broken ; the cord of love is parted ; 
there is no concern for qualities which are dig¬ 
nified and elevating ; and man goes down like a 
tree in a storm. There is decay in some high 
faculty and great sentiment of the soul, and the 
beauty and freshness of its garniture are de¬ 
stroyed. With no esteem for character there 
is no possession of honor; and there is nothing 
to keep the feet from striking those hideous 
retreats where iniquity shatters the nerve 
and crumbles the bone. With the loss of 
honor there is a loss of manhood ; the wing 
of genius is broken, the flame of ambition is 
quenched, and the noble action which would 
have heaved and thrilled the period is never 
witnessed. 

The greatness that is enduring springs from 


CHARACTER. 


41 


the character that will bear the closest scrutiny 
and the deepest investigation. 

Plain without pomp, and rich without a show.— Dryden. 

It is not pasteboard gilded and embellished, 
not pinewood enamelled and varnished, but 
solid mahogany from the hands of a master- 
workman. It is the pure gold which has passed 
through the furnace, leaving the alloy, and re¬ 
taining every particle of the genuine metal. 
Men unfolding a character of this temper and 
quality have not only fine natural abilities, but 
those general acquirements which make them 
competent for multifarious duties. They are 
not distinguished by the idiosyncrasies which 
spring from the undue prominence of a single 
organ, but by the greatness of balanced facul¬ 
ties. They pass through the discipline which 
not only tries their fortitude and integrity, but 
expands their virtue and augments their power; 
and they rise to conspicuous notoriety, and 
exhibit unconscious greatness. 

Character is not dazzling, but impressive ; not 
gorgeous, but overawing ; influencing the people 
as with the strength of the hills. The greatness 
of the locomotive is not in her bulk of steel and 
polished ornaments of brass, but in the unseen 
power which turns her massive wheels. We 


42 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


prize not the tree for its luxuriant foliage, but 
for the valued timber which forms the keel of 
the ship and the framework of the building. 

Character, like nature, is multifarious and 
inexhaustive; it has qualities and attributes 
which inspire and strengthen the people in 
every latitude and country. The ground trod¬ 
den by hoofs, and ploughed by wheels, and 
stained here and there by bloody battle, sends 
up year after year the waving harvest. So men 
of ability and virtue, of culture and goodness, 
followed by the wicked spirit of acrimony and 
defamation, on account of their principles, yield 
to generation after generation the precious 
fruits of their noble lives. 

Nepos observes, with great truth, that we 
measure great men by their character and not 
by fortune. Magnos homines virtute metimur 
non fortuna. Character and not fortune is the 
standard by which we judge of the possession 
of the individual. We are not always com¬ 
petent to discern and estimate the greatness 
of character from appearance. A diamond 
may be covered with extraneous matter, so 
that we cannot discover at once its flashing 
fire and intrinsic worth. It is difficult to cal¬ 
culate the future influence of him who is only 
in the budding season of his manhood. It is 


CHARACTER. 


43 


hard to judge from the twig what will be the size 
and strength of the tree after the summers of a 
century have breathed among its branches. 

There are men without experience and dis¬ 
cipline, who possess the attributes and qualities 
which belong to the loftiest natures. They are 
not exhibited in any conspicuous manner? be¬ 
cause there is no pressing exigency which calls 
them forth from their seclusion. How often 
have we been amazed at the coming of a great 
man from some humble vocation, when the 
country has prayed for a leader, when its 
destiny was trembling in the balance. 

History is thronged with illustrations of this 
subject. When Austria was threatened and 
Vienna was surrounded by the Turks under 
the command of the Vizier, and the people 
were burdened with anxiety and solicitude, 
Sobieski, the ruler and hero of Poland, came 
with his hardy veterans and brought joyful 
deliverance. When Leyden was besieged by 
Philip II., with his immense army, and the 
wall of anguish and despair rose from the peo¬ 
ple, William the Silent, born for sovereignty 
and leadership, came modestly but bravely to 
the rescue, when the Spaniards were routed 
and the Netherlands were delivered. When 
the American Republic was menaced and the 


44 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


pillars of the Federal Government were trem¬ 
bling to their foundations, Grant, with his silent 
dignity, modest deportment, pre-eminent ability, 
and unfaltering resolution, emerged from his 
obscurity, and became the triumphant leader 
of that immortal army whose potent tread will 
catch the ear and inspire the heart of men in 
the centuries to come. 

In the unfolding of character we see the ex¬ 
hibition of virtue. The predominant significa¬ 
tion of virtue was valor with those of Greece 
and Rome. Virtue signified that courage and 
endurance which were manifested at Marathon 
and Actium. It meant the display of those 
traits of character which made the soldier a 
hero on the field. By virtue we mean to sig¬ 
nify the eminent qualities of the mind and 
heart, and which enter into the fibre and color 
of character. It represents the moral courage 
and moral energy displayed by the individual 
in the conflict against the encroachments of 
Error and Superstition. 

Its power is felt when man enters the arena, 
impelled by the spirit of philanthropy and 
righteousness, and there strikes down False¬ 
hood and Oppression. Its power is felt in the 
thought which stirs the blood ; and in the ac¬ 
tion which breaks the chain, and heaves Wick- 


CHARACTER . 


45 


edness and Cruelty from their dark thrones, 
and gives Education and Liberty a high place 
to bear sway over the million. Consider the 
influence and example of such minds, devoted 
to education and philanthropy, to progress and 
liberty, as Guthrie and Clarkson, Channing and 
Garrison, helping to elevate the million where 
the upturned face is transfigured in the de¬ 
scending light. 

Virtue, then, is the representative of the 
strength and grace of character. It embodies 
and reveals the essential qualities of the up¬ 
right citizen. It is the predominant element 
in the character of those who stamp their 
names upon history as reformers and bene¬ 
factors. It is an inherent principle charged 
with the essence of what is pure and good, 
noble and generous, and shines through scenes 
of darkness and evil. When unshackled by the 
senses and unconfined by the passions, it has a 
divine significance and wields a divine influ¬ 
ence. It blossoms out of character; and we 
behold it in men of plodding talent, as well as 
in men of nimble versatility, like Goethe, the 
scientist, novelist, and poet ; like Macaulay, the 
statesman, historian, and essayist; like DaVinci, 
the painter, sculptor, and architect; like Frank¬ 
lin, the philosopher, economist, and diplomat. 


4 6 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


Seneca says that virtue, like fire, turns all 
things into itself, our actions and our friend¬ 
ships are tinctured with it, and whatever it 
touches becomes amiable. Wherever virtue 
lives and finds expression in beautiful example, 
it exerts a refining influence, giving purity to 
motive and stability to character. The forms 
of vice wither in its presence, the impure pas¬ 
sion is held in check, the destructive propen¬ 
sity is bridled and controlled, the generous im¬ 
pulse is quickened and exhibited, and the heroic 
action which seeks the redemption and happi¬ 
ness of humanity is eulogized and applauded. 

There is no grander figure in our colonial 
history than Samuel Adams, who, with unsul¬ 
lied probity and untrammelled intellect, gave 
the weight of his influence to liberty, and sent 
it forth on its divine errand. 

Socrates says that a horse is not known by 
his furniture, but by his qualities; so men are 
to be estimated for virtue, not wealth, nor rank. 
We do not judge of the bravery and ability of 
the soldier by his epaulettes, nor of the talent 
and eloquence of the clergyman by his surplice. 
We estimate a vessel not by her streaming 
colors, but by her sea-going qualities. We 
judge of men not by position or affluence, 
but by intelligence and morality, by refine- 


CHARACTER. 


47 


ment and character. When Faraday bound 
books and Lincoln made rails, when Bloom¬ 
field bent over the last and Garfield worked 
on the canal, their rank^and place were not the 
exponents of their talent and capacity. Plu¬ 
tarch, with his marvellous ability as a writer of 
biography, performed a great work for the 
centuries in describing the careers and analyz¬ 
ing the characters of the most eminent and 
illustrious of classical antiquity. 

It is astonishing to behold the phases and 
qualities of character. What a field of thought 
and work for the dramatist and historian, the 
novelist and essayist. How much is here to 
busy the mind of poet and painter, and to give 
inspiring effect to the flaming periods of the 
orator. Not only among the ancients but the 
moderns, we find great thought and thrilling 
power in the description of character. We 
have it in Homer and Virgil, as in Sophocles 
and Euripides. We have it in Fielding and 
Smollett, as in Beaumont and Fletcher. 

What gives such a charm to the pages of 
Dickens and Thackeray is their life-like paint¬ 
ings of character. What strokes of genius and 
vigor in the description of character in the 
essays of Hazlitt and De Quincey, and of 
Macaulay and Carlyle ; what searching analy- 


48 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


sis in Emerson, and winning portraiture in 
Irving, as they deal with the actors who have 
passed behind the scenes. This power of 
description gave fame to Cooper and Haw¬ 
thorne, to Goldsmith and Bulwer, and brought 
the world with admiring reverence to the feet 
of Shakespeare. 

In the hour of meditation and reflection we 
turn to think of the amiable in disposition and 
the generous in character. We turn to rever¬ 
ence the magnanimity, and to honor the cour¬ 
age of those who passed through scenes of 
hardship and suffering, to give the world 
something of importance and value. In the 
hour of deep thought and holy prayer the tin¬ 
sel drops from the shoulder, and the lustre 
fades from the diadem. Then the mind pays 
respect and homage to those who seemed to 
embody the highest wisdom and the greatest 
purity, and walked the earth as prophets and 
martyrs. The splendor of worldly achievement 
and the glory of worldly distinction lose their 
charm in the flight of years; and amid fading 
crowns and crumbling thrones, the mind goes 
back to honor the unprized virtue and venerate 
the unappreciated character in the age which 
only heard the wheels of selfish Ambition and 
the tramp of merciless Conquest. 


CHARACTER . 49 

This inward esteem for virtue the noblest cherish, and the 
basest cannot expel.— Colton. 

Those live longest in history and memory who 
have been distinguished for their sterling quali¬ 
ties of character, and celebrated for their active 
interest in humanity. Such men find lovers 
and admirers in every country and period ; for 
they have struck the chord of human sym¬ 
pathy and sent its charming music through the 
world. We think more of Cicero standing in 
the forum and pleading for justice than we do 
of Caesar presiding over the Senate, or of 
Scipio leading his army into Africa. We think 
more of Socrates discoursing upon ethics to 
the young in the shadow of the temples of 
Athens, than we do of Themistocles with all 
his reputation as a general, or of Demosthenes 
with all his celebrity as an orator. He who 
has toiled and suffered for humanity, for the 
establishment of justice and the enthronement 
of liberty, we feel is our friend, and his name 
shall be handed from heart to heart through a 
hundred generations. 

When Thales of Miletus was asked how we 
shall best attain to virtue, he replied, by 
abstaining from what we condemn in others. 
When man is careful to avoid the folly and 

mistakes and to- refrain from the evil and 
4 


50 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


indiscretions he sees in the world, he strikes 
the lines of prudence and success. When he 
discards all that is impure and ruinous, when 
he ignores all that is unjust and destructive, 
he becomes a saving example to the public. 
He is an heroic chieftain, and beckons to the 
citadel of his bosom the invincible forces of 
Wisdom and Integrity, that know nothing of 
humiliating surrender. 

The advice of Bias of Priene is to form your 
plans with deliberation, and to execute them 
with vigor. Those who are swayed by this 
advice find success coming into the lonely 
retreat, like the glory of the evening star flash¬ 
ing through the twilight. When man succeeds 
by sterling ability and active labor, and enter¬ 
tains Honor as the cherished guest of the 
inviting heart, he is always esteemed. There 
is an instinctive reverence for virtue and talent 
in the various orders of society. The lark goes 
up with buoyant wing and musical throat to 
greet the sun in his coming. It was a grand 
sight to witness the entire audience rising to 
salute Virgil in the theatre at Rome, on account 
of his character as well as his ability. 

Many have a desire for reputation and a 
longing for distinction. But a distinction 
without virtue is ephemeral, and a reputation 


CHARACTER. 


51 


without character is fleeting. They are built 
upon the outward, instead of the inward; 
upon the temporal, instead of the eternal. 
They are created by the events and circum¬ 
stances of a day; and having no foundation 
that is permanent, they are ruined by the 
strokes and changes of an hour. That dis¬ 
tinction which is lasting, and that reputation 
which is durable, are based upon goodness and 
morality as well as intellectual ability. When 
wealth loses its power and fame its glory, 
when talent fails to attract and genius to 
inspire, then goodness and morality are the 
substantial qualities that enter into the founda¬ 
tion of character which rises with impressive 
grandeur. 

There is not only a deep satisfaction but a 
supreme pleasure in contemplating the charac¬ 
ters of those who have been clothed in sim¬ 
plicity and purity, who have been indomitable 
and persevering, and who have possessed great 
ability and wide scholarship. We have repre¬ 
sentatives of this class in personages like 
Robertson and Maurice, like Channing and 
Bushnell, who, with their independence and 
chivalry, their high culture and deep piety, 
gained reverent admiration. What grandeur 
and nobleness of character, as well as power 


52 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


and brilliancy of intellect, do we behold in 
Kingsley and Stanley, both so generous in 
their sentiments and so eminent in their virtues. 

It is truly said that what men may admire 
on the canvas or in the marble, in history or in 
poetry, pertaining to character, they can unfold 
to a certain extent in their own lives. 

If they have not the talent to describe with 
the writer, or to portray with the artist, they 
may, amidst the plastic opportunities of time, 
carve out eminent qualities. In poetry and 
romance, in painting and sculpture, the writer 
and the artist endeavor to present the loftiest 
ideals of character. They often describe the 
firmness and courage of the patriot, and por¬ 
tray the goodness and benevolence of the bene¬ 
factor. In their hands we see the sympathy 
and abnegation of the lover of humanity, and 
the constancy and fortitude of the martyr to 
principle. But all that is good and great in 
these characters may be cherished and emu¬ 
lated by man, and much of it possessed and 
exhibited by all. 

Before talent and genius can accomplish a 
great deal that will be ennobling and beneficial, 
they must be purified by goodness. Men may 
be endowed with affluent faculties, but in order 
to exert a refining influence they must possess 


CHARACTER. 


53 


purity and honor. In men of the richest cul¬ 
ture we find the mental and moral powers 
equally active. The planets move in their 
orbits, and shed their glory by the action of 
the centripetal and centrifugal forces. To with¬ 
draw either force would hurl the planet from its 
circuit, and precipitate a collision among the 
spheres. And so if man would travel in the 
circuit of usefulness, and dispense the glory of 
virtue, he must have the action of the mental 
and moral forces. To withdraw either force 
would hurl him from his orbit, and he would 
wander in confusion and disappear in darkness. 

The statement is illustrated in the balanced 
organs and rounded characters of such men as 
Confucius and Antoninus. It is also exempli¬ 
fied in the noble careers and extended useful¬ 
ness of such men as John Bright and Horace 
Greeley. Washington was a man of undis¬ 
turbed equanimity; as a general he was not so 
eminent as Wellington or Marlborough ; as a 
statesman he was not so distinguished as Ed¬ 
mund Burke or Robert Peel; but in his charac¬ 
ter as a patriot and a ruler, loving justice and 
defending liberty, behold how he rises in the 
dominion of history, swaying cabinets and par¬ 
liaments, and moving generations and countries 
by his exalted virtue and supreme integrity. 


54 a PPL ICA TION A ND A CHIE YEMEN T. 


And so purity and refinement in different 
writers have an unmeasured influence. It gives 
the author the confidence and respect of the 
reader. He feels that the bridge, with its ele¬ 
gant workmanship and swinging majesty, is 
safe. While there is a spontaneous admiration 
for Genius, there is likewise an instinctive rev¬ 
erence for Goodness. Surely this must give to 
such poets as Cowper and Thomson, Words¬ 
worth and Tennyson, an increased charm to 
their popular verse. It must also give to Long¬ 
fellow and Bryant, to Whittier and Lowell, an 
added interest to their harmonic numbers. 
How much more interesting and attractive are 
the writings of Whipple and Hawthorne, Mot¬ 
ley and Bancroft, because of their purity and 
refinement. Chateaubriand well says that all 
works of the intellect which have not been 
quickened by Religion are doomed to perish 
or lose their power. 

He who has character, has virtue and honor; 
he has moral courage and moral independence. 
These are the fundamental qualities in the 
character of him who is competent to battle 
with success the tyrannical evils of the world. 
They unite to rear the true man in stately 
grandeur, and to hold him with firmness and 
majesty against every shock and every storm. 


CHARACTER. 


55 


He who possesses them will make mankind feel 
that he is on the earth for a noble purpose, 
that he has important issues to meet, and that 
he has a right to be heard. He disdains to 
pander to any vice, or to gamble with any 
wrong. Casting off cumbersome tradition and 
tyrannical usage, he goes into the arena, unbur¬ 
dened and undaunted, and strikes a blow for 
truth. Enemies may conspire and endeavor to 
cleave him down, but his cause being the cause 
of Humanity, and his strength being the 
strength of Jehovah, he is invincible. 

The true grandeur of nations is in those qualities which 
constitute the true greatness of the individual.— Charles 
Sumner. 

It is related that the wife of Asdrubal cursed 
the treason of her husband, and then threw 
herself with her children into the flames of the 
temple of SEsculapius, which she had set on fire. 
It is also declared that Sophronia, the virtuous 
matron, stabbed herself to escape the violence 
of Maxentius. Such a revelation of sentiment 
and principle, so high-born and uplifting, and 
such an exhibition of courage and virtue, so 
invincible and swaying, demonstrate the noble¬ 
ness and divinity of the soul when character is 
enthroned. 


5 6 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


Character, like every thing of intrinsic value 
in the sphere of human action, is the result of 
study and discipline. Its beauty and majesty 
depend upon the training of the intellect and 
the cultivation of the disposition, with the har¬ 
monious activity of royal powers. To possess 
a character that is full and complete, strong and 
impressive, man must, by study and service, 
bring into prominence superb qualities and 
godlike attributes. The necessity to struggle 
against hardship and adversity, to battle against 
calumny and turpitude, develops reserved 
power and hidden grace. We see this in 
characters and careers of such men as Napier 
and Havelock, Lawrence and Nicholson, whose 
virtues outweigh their battles. 

And with chivalry and nobleness of character 
we have those of benevolence and philanthropy. 
They are the lovers of their race and kind, and 
wherever Oppression puts on the yoke, or 
Cruelty draws the lash, there they struggle for 
their banishment. Their hearts pour forth the 
limpid streams of sympathy and affection for 
the unfortunate and distressed. They wear no 
gory laurels upon their brow, but the bright 
shield of faith upon their breast. We behold 
these characters in missionaries like Carey and 
Livingstone, and in philanthropists like Oberlin 


CHARACTER. 


57 


and Guthrie, like Lawrence and Montefiore, 
whose great deeds of benevolence and human¬ 
ity have brightened the world. 

Nothing is more unfortunate than a defect in 
character caused by corruption or dishonesty. 
It is like removing a block of marble from the 
building and marring its beauty and leaving it 
to offend. It is like taking a pictorial window 
from a splendid temple, and letting in the wind 
and rain, where the rook may come and spread 
its wings. Nothing is more saddening than to 
behold character wrenched and stained, and its 
beauty and symmetry gone. 

Character is the picture that man transmits 
to the canvas of life. It will be admired or 
condemned according to its intrinsic merits. 
Man, then, should feel responsible for his 
character. The intellect and the conscience 
enter into its fibres, as oxygen and nitrogen 
enter into the composition of air. Before it 
can be evolved and expanded into lines of 
beauty and attractiveness, its possessor must 
pass through seasons of study and meditation. 
Like a Grecian runner or a Roman athlete, he 
must contend against Temptation and Iniquity. 
The needle undergoes about seventy processes 
before it is ready to carry the thread, and yet 
busy workmen do not falter till it is finished. 


58 APPLICA TIOIV A ND A CHIE VEMENT. 


Let character, then, unlike reputation, be re¬ 
garded as man’s own creation, worked out of 
the marble of being, for the beauty and har¬ 
mony of which he alone is responsible to that 
Architect and Builder who uncovers the quarry 
and inspires the chisel. 

Notwithstanding this, the majority have de¬ 
lighted more in show than in substance, more 
in name than in reality. They have been more 
interested in glittering pageantry than in solid 
virtue. They have endeavored to honor in 
public demonstration and fulsome panegyric 
those who have been starred and gartered, and 
those who have worn empty titles as a steed 
wears fluttering ribbons. They have overlooked 
men of modest pretensions, who had not only 
astute powers but superior acquirements, and 
whose hearts were filled with the best things of 
human nature, and whose minds, on many oc¬ 
casions, were illumined with the coruscations 
of genius. 

Witness the imbecility and truculence of 
many. Behold the pretension and ostentation 
of others. What are they but portable ma¬ 
chines of obnoxious conceit ? What are they 
but strutting peacocks of egregious vanity ? 
Then there are persons who live on the surface, 
and instead of taking root in the soil of honor 


CHARACTER. 


59 


and probity, they wet their lips with the foam 
of falsehood and duplicity. They are destitute 
of generous impulse and stalwart virtue, they 
are deceitful and misleading, and are sometimes 
incased in a religious profession as in a metallic 
armor. 

They have no virility, no strength of purpose 
or character; they stand before nothing that is 
belligerent and aggressive, nothing that is atro¬ 
cious and malevolent, and that demands the 
granite-like qualities of royal manhood. What 
a contrast do we behold when we place by the 
side of this class such men as John Huss, with 
his unshaken firmness, Hampden, with his 
inflexible resolution, John Knox, with his un¬ 
faltering courage, Stanton, with his invincible 
fortitude, and Seward, with his unyielding con¬ 
viction. Witness their intellectual vigor and 
masterly ability, and behold their unwavering 
loyalty amid factions that threatened and dan¬ 
gers which appalled. 

Such times bring forth from the multitude of 
the incompetent and untrustworthy those of 
capacity and reliability. They also quicken 
and unfold the loftiest qualities and the grand¬ 
est powers, just as the rose-bush, struck by 
sunshine and shower, reveals its richest color 
and its sweetest perfume. Bacon observes that 


60 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant 
when they are incensed or crushed. Richelieu 
declares that a virtuous man is like a good 
metal, the more he is fired, the more he is fin¬ 
ished ; the more he is opposed, the more he is 
approved. 

Again, man must learn to harmonize his 
faculties as instruments in an orchestra. Order 
will reign among the powers which have been 
trained and subjected. If an instrument in the 
orchestra strikes the wrong note, discord pre¬ 
vails, and the power of music, to a certain 
extent, is lost. If a faculty is out of tune, it 
will destroy the harmony of the remainder, 
and the conduct of the individual will be dis¬ 
cordant. The character that is the most im¬ 
pressive, is possessed by him who has the most 
consonance among his powers. Man must re¬ 
sist the tide of passion and the voice of temp¬ 
tation, the beck of alluring excitement and 
the charm of baneful pleasure. He must be 
loyal to his convictions, sedulous in his pur¬ 
suits, sincere in his expressions, and honest in 
his principles. He should be firm without 
being obstinate, just without being severe, ex¬ 
act without being punctilious, faithful without 
being pertinacious ; a student of history and 
humanity, conforming to the laws of moral- 


CHARACTER. 


61 


ity and justice, unbending in his honor and 
integrity, putting mendacity and vituperation 
under his feet, nurturing magnanimity and phi¬ 
lanthropy in his breast, he stands among the 
noblemen of the world. 

We are impressed with the remark of Fisher 
Ames. He says that the most substantial 
glory of a country is in its virtuous great men. 
And he adds that its prosperity depends upon 
its docility to learn from their example. If we 
wish to have the truth of this remark verified, 
we only need to consult history. Rome sur¬ 
rendered her power, and Greece parted with 
her glory, when their great men lost their vir¬ 
tue. With no virtue to bind their government, 
to clothe their religion, and to hold with un¬ 
yielding tenacity their social fabric, they went 
down in the dark path of littered decay. Lin¬ 
ger around the lonely ruins of their mighty 
aqueducts and splendid temples, and behold 
desolation brooding over the Acropolis and the 
Parthenon and the Palaces of the Caesars, and 
remember that their fate will be ours unless we 
retain our virtue. 

Read the roll of the world’s benefactors! 
Hear them respond from their sepulchres! 
They speak from the centuries that rolled with 
silence away. They answer with the voice that 


62 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


once cheered the million. They gather from 
every country ; they rise from every generation. 
They testify that the world has never been 
without its apostles and martyrs. They bring 
the chains they have broken, and the fetters 
they have unclasped. Oh the line of vir¬ 
tuous men marking the path of greatness and 
progress as they stretch along the highway of 
history ! They had generous sympathy and 
unbending rectitude, and while they gave their 
dust to the tomb they bequeathed their char¬ 
acter as a most valuable legacy to the world. 


CURRENTS. 


Air is set in motion, according to philosophy, 
by any cause which disturbs its equilibrium. 
The slightest mutation in the temperature will 
put air in motion, for it is declared to be as 
sensitive as the most delicate balance. Hence 
physicists inform us that the chief causes of 
wind are rarefaction by heat and condensation 
by cold. 

The chimney is regarded as a perpendicular 
tube through which a column of rarefied air 
passes. The warm air rises, and the cold air 
rushes in to fill the vacuum and restore the 
equilibrium. This forms a current of air, which 
carries the smoke above the dwelling and the 
factory. 

The atmosphere is a gaseous envelope which 
encloses the planet. A slight change in the 
temperature will start the wind upon its mys¬ 
terious journey. It will cross the ocean, dip¬ 
ping its wings in its waves, and it will sweep 
over the continent, breathing refreshing vigor 
to its numerous inhabitants. 

63 


64 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


All wind is caused by changes of tempera¬ 
ture. When the temperature of two adjacent 
regions becomes by any cause altered and un¬ 
equal, then swaying currents of air are unloosed 
and started. The warmer air being lighter, 
rises ; and the colder air being heavier, descends; 
rushing in to take its place and exercise its 
office. This produces two currents of air in 
these two regions, one blowing from the colder 
to the warmer along the surface of the planet, 
and the other blowing from the warmer to the 
colder in the upper section of the stainless 
atmosphere. And this continues, making the 
gentle wind and the stirring gale, until the equi¬ 
librium is restored. 

We have the land and ocean breezes by the 
causes already mentioned. We have these in 
maritime countries, but more especially in the 
islands of the torrid zone with their heated vales. 
They depend upon the course of the sun, blow¬ 
ing from the land in the night when Weariness 
empties the streets, and towards the land in 
the day when Industry unlocks the wheels. 
When the sun rises and strikes one of these 
islands, the contiguous atmosphere is warmed 
and stirred, and a breeze is started on its 
beneficent errand. 

Whether we toil on the land amid its shad- 


CURRENTS . 


65 


ows, or sail on the ocean above its mysteries, 
we come in contact with these breezes, and 
find them playful and capricious. They wrinkle 
the bosom of the main; they ripple the leaves 
of the forest ; they ruffle the down on the 
outstretched wing of the reconnoitring bird. 
They fan the temples of the aged and infirm, 
and kiss the foreheads of the youthful and 
innocent; at times whispering of storms which 
drive the sailor up the mast and the farmer 
out of the field. 

There are currents of thought as well as of 
air. The heart becomes heated when man is 
dwelling on a great theme or an important 
question ; then a current of thought rises from 
the brain. It strikes mankind with a control¬ 
ling puissance and stirs the fires of a slumbering 
enthusiasm as it sweeps through communities 
and kingdoms. Unnumbered thousands ac¬ 
knowledge its influence, and are stimulated 
and strengthened as it works upon the mind 
with its recuperative energies. It quickens 
the spirit of ambition and enterprise; and men 
rise from their dreams of apathy and indif¬ 
ference and become Thinkers and Leaders. 

The lamps of investigation are trimmed ; the 
wheels of progress are turned. The mental 
powers are aroused and animated. Men be- 
5 


66 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


gin to study and advance, and we witness the 
exercise of potential faculties and the exhibi¬ 
tion of eminent virtues. They rise in the dig¬ 
nity of regal manhood ; they wave the sceptre 
of kingly power; they strike the realm of in¬ 
tellectual activity; they make valuable contri¬ 
butions to painting and poetry, to statuary and 
history, to invention and discovery, to science 
and philosophy ; and the years grow opulent 
and luminous with thought. 

There are various kinds of wind as of cloud. 
They frequently travel through a particular 
region with a tremendous power, leaving build¬ 
ings and fences in ruin. Sometimes they will 
blow with great force on one part of the ocean 
when another part will be calm and tranquil. 
Sometimes they will sweep with destructive 
energy over one part of the country when an¬ 
other part will be still and serene. What ships 
have been wrecked and what homes have been 
shaken by these unseen currents that mock at 
fear and hurry to unknown retreats ! 

We have seen in one of the States of the 
West the track of a tornado, made, doubtless, 
before the first gun was fired in the American 
Revolution. Unbridled it rushed through the 
ancient forest, and great trees, majestic and 
venerable, were levelled to the ground. It 


CURRENTS. 


67 


never deviated from its course, but made a 
swath through the dense woods as straight and 
clean as a mower in the teeming meadow with 
his scythe. We thought of the pioneers of his¬ 
tory opening a highway for human progress, 
and bidding it follow on with its letters and 
implements. 

And so there are different kinds of thought 
as of mind. Thought moves on certain planes 
and stirs certain minds. It diffuses that amount 
of inspiration and energy which is prodigious 
and incalculable. It travels through a particu¬ 
lar latitude and influences a particular people, 
stimulating that mental activity which builds 
the noble institutions of learning and benevo¬ 
lence, and displays the impressive symbols of 
progress and power. Thought, like a storm, 
often occupies a given space, follows a given 
line, and moves on the hearts of the multitude 
with an electric puissance, calling from the 
mental furrows the richest products. 

When a cloud of rain passes over the country 
we behold the streams enlarged and gladdened, 
and the fields refreshed and beautified. The 
face of nature is changed. The meadows are 
bright and luxuriant, the mountains are grand 
and uplifting, and the world seems gladdened 
and enriched. And when thought, pure and 


68 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


elevating, strong and inspiring, passes through 
a nation or an empire we find the mental fac¬ 
ulties strengthened and exercised, the moral 
virtues budding and expanding, and those im¬ 
portant movements inaugurated and carried 
forward which widen the borders of science and 
religion and give heart and hope to humanity. 

Thoughts shut up want air, 

And spoil like bales unopened to the sun. 

Young. 

To illustrate the subject, let us notice for a 
moment the Stoics and the Epicureans. A 
current of thought arose from the brain of 
Zeno, and the brain of Epicurus, and struck 
the inquiring minds that moved upon their in¬ 
tellectual planes. These two philosophers were 
the representatives not only of profound learn¬ 
ing and exhaustive acumen, but of two systems 
of thought, received and honored by two classes 
of students, among whom we find many who 
were distinguished, in a subsequent period, for 
their ability and wisdom. Among the Stoics 
we notice Cleanthes the philosopher, Seneca 
the essayist, and Epictetus the moralist; while 
among the Epicureans we observe Horace the 
poet, Apollodorus the painter, and Atticus 
the critic: and all honored and esteemed for 
their greatness and eminence in their different 


CURRENTS . 69 

pursuits, and all contributing to the renown 
and glory of Greece and Rome. 

Or look at those celebrated schools of philos¬ 
ophy in that celebrated period of inquiry, one 
headed by Plato, the other by Aristotle; and 
see how their thought attracted different minds 
and animated different souls, while the most 
noted scholars of the Grecian provinces and 
learned students of the Roman territories be¬ 
came their admirers and followers and handed 
their doctrines down through centuries. 

But we pass from philosophy to patriotism, 
and in so doing we pass from Athens to Rome ; 
not that Athens was destitute of patriotism, or 
that Rome was indifferent to philosophy. Here 
is Caesar, the greatest figure of antiquity, with 
his marvellous versatility of genius, moving for¬ 
ward with majestic strength and kingly look, 
contemplating the mighty empire with its regal 
symbols; and doubtless dreaming of the purple 
and the diadem. Here is Brutus, noble in de¬ 
meanor and stately in character, with his dem¬ 
ocratic proclivities recognized and respected 
by his patriotic compeers, guarding the institu¬ 
tions and glory of the republic ; and for his 
quenchless devotion to country and liberty 
striking down 

“ The foremost man of all this world.” 


70 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT 


Caesar and Brutus occupied different posi¬ 
tions, and cherished different principles, and 
studied upon political questions till the heart 
became heated and aroused ; then powerful 
currents of thought rushed through the political 
atmosphere, striking different minds upon dif¬ 
ferent planes ; and then came up the storm of 
dissension and revolution, and broke in thunder¬ 
claps over the Eternal City. 

Winds are born on the mountains and in the 
valleys. Thought issues from the brain of the 
patrician and the plebeian. If we rise among 
the renowned or drop among the unknown, we 
shall come in contact with unseen currents of 
thought and power. The thought of Charles 
I. occupied a certain section and moved upon 
a certain number in England and Scotland. It 
exerted an influence upon all who were admirers 
of his court and defenders of his throne. The 
hearts of Hampden and Cromwell became 
heated and expanded, as they dwelt in earnest 
debate upon various questions relating to the 
rights of the people. There was a change in 
the temperature of the political atmosphere; 
and mighty currents of thought and feeling 
rushed through the land. They swept with 
unyielding influence upon the hearts of the 
oppressed yeomanry, who arose in the vigor 


CURRENTS. 


71 


and power of their manhood, and began to 
s truggle for Constitutional Liberty. 

These currents rushed through the realm 
where men labored and suffered under cruel 
laws and heavy taxes, muttering of the storm 
of the terrible conflict that should shake the 
British domain. Behold the Royalists and the 
Puritans, and mark with what tenacity they 
adhere to their opinions, and with what bravery 
they contend for their principles in that bloody 
period, when momentous issues were at stake. 
The upper current spends its force and is lost; 
the under current widens its space and in¬ 
creases its power; and the throne is swept 
away. Charles I. goes down before the storm ; 
and Cromwell rises as Protector of the Com¬ 
monwealth, and is honored by every nation as 
one of the greatest rulers in the world. 

Observe the startling results of these invisible 
currents in the period preceding the French 
Revolution. Observe the effect of the thinking 
of those who occupied the Bourbon throne. 
Their thought had a controlling influence upon 
those who esteemed royal favor and counte¬ 
nanced gilded corruption. But men of inde¬ 
pendence and resolution, dissatisfied with the 
dominating influence of imbecile government, 
broke the cords of stupor and indifference, and 


72 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


arose. They spoke with passion and feeling for 
Liberty and Equality ; and their words were 
like sparks of fire flashing through the dark¬ 
ened avenues of Poverty and Oppression, kind¬ 
ling a revolutionary spirit in the souls of men. 

Danton and Mirabeau arose with their hearts 
warmed and thrilled, and immense currents of 
thought issued from the hidden resources of 
the brain and swept upon the people with 
amazing energy. Under the potent genius of 
thought the people were aroused in France, 
and with the blind fury of passion the multi¬ 
tudes were swayed through the streets of Paris ; 
and down in blood went the star of that unfor¬ 
tunate ruler, Louis XVI. The upper currents 
weakened and ceased, the lower currents arose 
and rushed on with augmented energy, fol¬ 
lowed by a great storm that was destructive 
and appalling; and with no Jupiter to guide 
the thunder, Napoleon leaped into the car of 
war, and grasping for universal empire, with 
deathless ambition, he shook all Europe as he 
rode. 

Men possessed with an idea cannot be reasoned with.— 
Froude. 

No earthly power can chain the storm or 
control the tempest. They bend the tree; 


CURRENTS. 


73 


they drive the ship ; they shake the temple ; 
they wrench the mountain. Neither can any 
earthly power chain the current of thought, or 
control the storm of revolution. The monu¬ 
ments of hoary error and tyrannical customs 
are shaken and destroyed. Nothing could bind 
the truth uttered by Wickliffe, nor smother 
the flame kindled by Luther. A change in the 
religious atmosphere in Germany and England 
produced those magnetic currents of thought 
which moved upon mankind with marvellous 
effect. Behold the labors and sacrifices and 
the inestimable influence of such distinguished 
reformers as Zwingli and Melanchthon, Latimer 
and Cranmer, with the unfettered people rising 
to larger liberty, and the light of the Reforma¬ 
tion illumining a darkened sky. 

The mind is heated by study. Its faculties 
are suffused with light and warmth. Without 
the heat of the sun there could be no beauty in 
summer nor bounty in autumn. Without this 
heat of the mind there could be no growth of 
thought nor evolution of character. Withdraw 
the heat of the sun, and you weaken life in the 
vegetable and the animal kingdom. Then 
soon will come Famine brooding in the empty 
field and on the desolate hearth, and Destitu¬ 
tion looking with white face on the uneasy 


74 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

multitude, with factories closed and workshops 
deserted. Let there be no rays of light coming 
to the mind and heart, and how soon would the 
faculties and sympathies lose their vigor and 
beauty; with government exhibiting the symp¬ 
toms of weakness and decay, and civilization 
surrendering its power and glory. 

Heat gives beauty and beneficence to the 
universe. Heat gives grandeur and fertility to 
the intellect. Without this heat we could have 
no poetry nor mechanics, no philosophy nor 
mathematics. Without this heat we could have 
no philanthropic ministries, no educational in¬ 
stitutions. With this heat we have activity of 
the mind and heart, and the currents of inspira¬ 
tion and enthusiasm, which encourage learning 
and discovery, and stimulate reform and char- 
ity, giving to business its looms and wheels, its 
banks and stores. With this heat we have a 
quickening and unfolding of the best things in 
human character; and the activity which not 
only rolls in guineas and doubloons, but which 
carves statues and paints pictures, writes essays 
and builds epics, and thunders in the forum and 
the pulpit. 

As an example of this activity, look at the 
great city at the early dawn, shaking off its 
fretted slumber and breaking up its tomblike 


CURRENTS. 


75 


tranquillity; with engines beginning to move 
their muscles and start their movements; with 
mammoth stores opening their ponderous 
doors; with eager trade hurrying forth with 
clattering hoofs and rumbling wheels; with 
trowels ringing and hammers sounding along 
the streets of toil; with markets unlocking their 
iron gates and inviting in the busy feet; with 
boats slipping away from their fastenings and 
churning the river into foam ; with ships going 
out with saddening farewells, and ships coming 
in with joyous welcomes ; till the light streams 
upon steeple, turret, and roof, and breaks in 
fulness, splendor, and gladness in the surging 
avenues of toiling humanity ;—and a new day is 
born ! 

Bacon observes that all manner of winds 
purge the air and cleanse it from all putrefac¬ 
tion, so that such years as are most windy 
are most healthful. It may likewise be 
asserted without successful contradiction that all 
pure thought tends to elevate society, and to 
cleanse it from all its evils and errors. It may 
be stated still further that where there is the 
greatest amount of pure thought, we shall behold 
the highest display of wisdom and virtue. In that 
community where thought is appreciated and 
encouraged truth is eliminated from tradition 


y6 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


and superstition. We witness an increase of 
mental activity and moral refinement, with the 
people going forward under wholesome enact¬ 
ments and benign institutions, and making the 
physical universe reveal its astounding secrets. 

Thought, reverent and devout, always makes 
a road for the advancement of the people. It 
puts into their hands the keys of knowledge 
and power. It leads them into realms of won¬ 
derful wisdom and amazing goodness. When 
thought preponderates over passion and preju¬ 
dice the people drop their bigotry and intoler¬ 
ance. This is observable and indisputable. 
They strike the lines of study and attainment, 
of culture and acquirement, and find the world 
full of interest and beauty, of order and benefi¬ 
cence. Emerson declares, with great truth, 
that every thought which genius and piety throw 
into the world alters the world. 

Cousin remarks that the two greatest things in 
the world are action and thought ; the one dis¬ 
played on the field of battle, and the other in the 
solitude of the closet. He makes this statement 
in a lecture on great men, where he argues that 
the hero and the philosopher are the mightiest 
forces in the nation, and have the highest posi¬ 
tion in the temple of renown. They are, only 
when their talents and energies are exercised for 


CURRENTS . 


n 


the removal of credulity and oppression, and the 
establishment of order and justice ; with Learn¬ 
ing opening its fountains, and Religion scat¬ 
tering its beatitudes. 

We esteem the philosopher when he is reveal- 
ing great laws and elucidating salient principles, 
and by his labors and triumphs is contribu¬ 
ting to the intelligence and elevation of the 
people. We honor the hero when he buckles 
- on his armor and, on account of his devotion to 
country and liberty, goes into the conflict, and 
contends for the removal of withering evils and 
the promotion of righteous principles. A hun¬ 
dred cannon may batter into ruin a strong city ; 
but a great thought thrown into the camp of 
tradition and superstition will destroy the 
theories and notions of many centuries, and 
start the world to higher attainments and greater 
accomplishments. 

Great thoughts, like great deeds, need 
No trumpet. 

Festus. 

Look at Attila with his savage hordes, and 
Tamerlane with his destroying legions; and see 
how their influence is narrowed, because they 
were not men of thought, speaking no words 
and striking no blows for the uplifting of man- 


7cS APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

kind. Look at Leonidas and Miltiades, at 
Washington and Garibaldi, men of eminent 
integrity and impressive character, and loving 
justice and freedom better than titles and scep¬ 
tres ; and see how they are venerated and eulo¬ 
gized because they drew their strong swords in 
the light of their great thought, and struggled 
to advance the interests of humanity. 

Look at Socrates and Aristides, at Descartes 
and Galileo, men of great thought, interested 
in the promotion of virtue and science ; and see 
how their labors are appreciated, and their 
characters are honored by the intelligent and 
cultured of every nation. When men are thus 
thinking and acting, whether they be called 
heroes or philosophers,—heroes in the struggle 
against tyranny and corruption, and philoso¬ 
phers in the conflict with error and superstition, 
—thought and action become the mighty forces 
of the world. 

Thought stirs the manifold departments of 
human activity. It gives us different kinds of 
tools, wares, and fabrics. It forms the various 
schools of painting, philosophy, and theology. 
It shows us the diversity of talent, and points 
us to the diversity of pursuit. It was the torch 
flame which guided Da Gama and Columbus in 
their researches and discoveries. It was the 


CURRENTS. 


79 

• 

stately river which bore Copernicus and Newton 
through the celestial country. It was the live 
coal which kindled such a glowing enthusiasm 
in the breasts of Peter the Hermit and Walter 
the Penniless. It was the white wing which 
bore Petrarch and Tasso, Wordsworth and Gold¬ 
smith, above the cold stream of care into the 
bright realm of song. It was the directing 
inspiration of Hallam and Guizot, Thiers and 
Ranke, as they struck the fields of literature and 
history. 

Thought gives character to cabinets and 
dynasties. According to its temper and spirit, 
governments become republican or monarchical. 


Thought takes man out of servitude into freedom. 

Emerson. 

It is the sceptre of him who leads mankind 
in politics or letters, in philosophy o religion. 
It holds the senate ; it thrills the army; it 
sways the jury ; it fills the temple. It has po¬ 
tent energy, controlling wonderful movements 
and powerful organizations, and determining 
the character and destiny of races. Shelley 
says : 

Thought by thought is piled till some great truth 
Is loosened, and the nations echo round 
Shaken to their roots, as do the mountains now. 


8o APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

A storm of wind will sometimes uproot the 
trees which have stood for a century. A cur¬ 
rent of thought will sometimes overturn theo¬ 
ries that are absurd, and customs that are 
foolish, which have been in vogue for years. 
The popularity of the tournament was ended 
when Don Quixote was summoned into the 
arena by the genius of Cervantes. Though the 
knight always remains “ disinterested, generous, 
elevated, and beneficent,” the exaggerated pic¬ 
tures of chivalry became not only ludicrous but 
unpopular. 

Thought moves the spring of action. It gives 
us the compass and the telescope ; calls forth 
printing and telegraphing; builds the steam¬ 
ship and the locomotive. It stamps its genius 
and character on wood and stone, on iron and 
silver. We see it in machines and dwellings, 
in temples and monuments. As we learn the 
reaches of the ocean by the shells and rocks 
upon the shore, so we learn the reaches of 
thought by the books and schools, the institu¬ 
tions and enactments, of the country. It makes 
men great and free; and without human free¬ 
dom it is hardly possible to have human great¬ 
ness. Montesquieu said that a country is well 
cultivated, not when it is fertile, but when it is 
free. 


CURRENTS. 


8 l 


And in things wrought from wood and iron, 
brass and marble, wool and linen, we see the 
power and greatness of thought. Who can 
witness these things and not be impressed with 
the marvellous intelligence which flashed be¬ 
hind them and over them, with a fashioning 
energy until they exhibited beauty and utility? 
Who can behold what has been accomplished 
in discovery, in navigation, in manufacture, 
and in architecture, and not be convinced of 
the power of intellect over matter ? As we 
behold the effects of a rain-storm in the bright¬ 
ened vales and jubilant streams, so we behold 
the effects of the currents of thought in the 
latest triumphs for the general advancement of 
society. 

The bud bursts into a flower; the plant 
grows into a tree ; the stream swells into a river. 
We see this philosophy of development in 
every sphere. Look at the work of thought 
from the sickle and needle to the machines 
which gather the harvest and stitch the 
clothing. Look at the work of thought from 
the drawings on the tombs of Egypt and 
Assyria to the paintings of Guido and Tinto¬ 
retto. Look at the work of thought from the 
lyre of Greece and Rome to the organ en¬ 
chanted under the ravishing melody of Handel 
6 


82 A PPLICA T/OAT A ND A CHIE VEMEN T. 


and Mozart. Witness the progress and power 
of thought in every thing which floats, from 
the boats of the Persian on the rushing waters 
of the Hellespont, to the floating palaces of 
the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the renowned 
war-ships which under the commanding genius 
of Blake and Nelson, Foote and Farragut, 
went flaming and thundering into the conflict. 

Thought is valuable in the proportion that it 
is generative, is the statement of Bulwer Lyt- 
ton. We see this exemplified in the disserta¬ 
tions of earnest students and profound scien¬ 
tists. When an independent scholar or an 
original thinker evolves fresh thought upon 
some branch of science or philosophy, it makes 
a stir among a studious and reflective people. 
The thought is a stranger, and it must be 
challenged ; it must be considered and exam¬ 
ined ; it must be approved and honored before 
it can reach the headquarters of popular and 
swaying intelligence. 

This of course calls forth thought from the 
ripest scholars and the profoundest thinkers. 
Consider how thought generated thought in 
metaphysics, in astronomy, in medicine, and in 
geology. Consider how thought stimulated 
thought among the studious and erudite, in 
spite of the limits of tradition and the barriers 



CURRENTS. 


83 


of prejudice. Behold this in the thinking of 
Kant and Hamilton, Locke and Malebranche 
in metaphysics; and of Kepler and Gassendi, 
Rosse and Leverrier, in astronomy. Behold, 
this in the thinking of Boerhaave and Hoffmann, 
Harvey and Jenner, in medicine; and of Lyeli 
and Burnet, Dana and Agassiz, in geology. 

Like pieces of coin, their thought had a pe¬ 
culiar value, as it went into the intellectual 
markets of the world. It demanded the earnest 
attention of the busy changers of thought, as 
does the coin from the mint of Spencer and 
Huxley, Tyndall and Darwin. And while such 
vigorous thinkers elicit thought from others of 
acknowledged ability upon various subjects of 
profound interest, truth is disentangled and 
error is eliminated. 

The world is advanced by study and thought. 
This advance is not always attended by the 
agitation and commotion of communities. It 
is sometimes advanced with the silence and 
glory of a planet on its orbit. Currents of 
thought, like currents of air, are not always 
furious nor threatening. A law is removed, a 
wrong is abolished, and the world moves on 
without any particular commotion. An evil is 
extirpated, an error is banished, and the people 
are not alarmed or excited, for the change has 


84 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


been gradual and tranquil. We look upon the 
earth when winter has locked its streams and 
whitened its hills, and we sigh for the tempera¬ 
ture which shall bring us summer with its bright 
skies and green fields. And without the least 
discord or confusion among the elements, sum¬ 
mer comes with her crown of beauty and glory 
and is welcomed and enthroned. 

The vigorous thinker is a great force, what¬ 
ever his pursuit. 

The great event, parent of all others, is it not the arrival of 
a thinker in the world ? 

Carlyle. 

He enters the realm of thought with his 
faculties equipped and disciplined. He rises 
in his manhood above offensive prejudices and 
repelling platitudes. He does not acquiesce, 
but examines ; he does not imitate, but evolves ; 
he does not copy, but produces. He rises 
above the deadening influence of mechanical 
conformity, and gives mankind something 
beautiful and valuable from the hands of the 
Creator. He is segregated from frivolous so¬ 
ciety, and is toiling with unrelaxing energy to 
possess the hidden treasures locked in the opu¬ 
lent chambers of the Universe. 

With a mind subtle and capacious, he grasps 
the principles and mysteries of nature, and has 


CURRENTS. 


85 


unlimited fellowship with her laws. With his 
heart heated and stirred, puissant currents of 
thought sweep through the land, calling into 
untiring activity those operations which open 
the door of acquirement to humanity. In re¬ 
gard to the influence upon society and civiliza¬ 
tion, we think more of Homer and Socrates 
than of Alexander ; more of Virgil and Terence 
than of Marius. In respect to the improve¬ 
ment and elevation of mankind, we think more 
of Milton, Newton, and Wilberforce than of 
the mere warrior; more of Goethe, Schlegel, 
and Humboldt than of the mere conqueror. 
With the advance of culture Thought out¬ 
weighs the Sword. 

There has been no grander exhibition than 
the public demonstration of respect and esteem 
paid a few years ago to Victor Hugo. 
When were the streets of Paris filled with such 
multitudes from all the sections of France, as 
were gathered at the funeral of this writer and 
poet ? When were there such reverence and 
admiration shown to thought in that city, 
through whose streets rolled the hearse of 
powerful rulers and renowned conquerors? 
Here was a man of purity and simplicity, a 
novelist and essayist, a thinker and poet, com¬ 
manding more respect and homage from the 


86 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


people than emperors like Aurelian and Charle¬ 
magne, or warriors like Edward the Black 
Prince and Richard Cceur de Lion. 

Thinking makes a people active and pro¬ 
gressive. Thinking gives them character and 
prominence. When a people are stimulated to 
think, they begin to exhibit virtue and power. 
They travel on the highway of greatness and 
renown, carrying with them the torches of 
truth and the banner of peace. They possess 
mental and moral vigor, and climb into con¬ 
spicuous and powerful places, inspiring the 
multitude and cheering the period. They 
brush down the cobwebs of ignorance and cre¬ 
dulity, they swing open the doors of knowledge 
and religion, and they usher mankind into more 
intimate relations with Nature and Deity. 

A classical writer observes that the deepest 
rivers flow with the least sound. Altissima 
quceque flumina minimo sono labuntur. And so 
the deepest thinkers make the least noise in 
this world of gabble and clamor. 


The ocean deeps are mute ; 
The shallows roar. 


Schiller. 


The most powerful forces in the material 
cosmos are the most silent and tranquil. The 
eruption of a volcano or the rumbling of an 



CURRENTS. 


87 


earthquake tends to fill us with astonishment 
and alarm. The storm marching through the 
heavens with his belligerent masses, dischar¬ 
ging peals of thunder from his concealed artil¬ 
lery, is likely to strike the soul with anxiety 
and consternation. But the power of these 
noisy agents is not to be compared with that 
silent energy which wheels the universe, poises 
the sun, and sprinkles the dew. 

A comet sweeps through the ethereal do¬ 
minion, and we look up with wonder and sur¬ 
prise, and fear that there may be confusion and 
destruction among the spheres. But we need 
not be frightened, for this madcap is under 
complete subjection to that silent power lodged 
in the central luminary of the solar system, and 
holding the physical universe together with all 
its starry clusters. From the sun there issues 
a silent power which quickens and unfolds life 
in all its various organisms; painting the leaf 
and ripening the grain, covering the earth with 
the living verdure of summer and the fading 
splendor of autumn, and throwing over the 
most distant planets a silvery radiance, and 
making no more noise than a swallow flying 
through the air. 

How noiseless is thought! no rolling of drums, 
no tramp of squadrons, or immeasurable tumult 


88 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


of baggage-wagons attend its movements, is the 
exclamation of Thomas Carlyle. Thought is 
as silent in its operations as a sunbeam ; but it 
goes through the land with more potency and 
grandeur than an army. Without the least 
noise it passes into the school-room and the 
laboratory, into the senate and the temple, and 
it startles from the invisible recesses of the 
brain a multitude of glowing ideas. It goes 
over the earth with a tread lighter and softer 
than the wind, calling out power and virtue from 
the mind, as the sun calls leaf and fruit from 
the tree. It sweeps round the earth with the 
silence of electricity ; and often we hear, as a 
result, guns firing, thrones falling, and shouts 
rising from the people, as though they were 
kindled and inspired by a Celestial Presence. 

Survey the world and witness the power of 
thought. Behold it starting reform and guard¬ 
ing justice. Behold it in the evolution of in¬ 
vention and the construction of machinery. 
What controlling energy it has at the bar on 
the majestic questions of law. It elevates and 
dignifies the poet and the statesman, and makes 
their honored names household words. It en¬ 
nobles and glorifies the painter and the sculp¬ 
tor, and hands their works down through time 
to the admiring million. Under its magnetic 


CURRENTS. 


89 


influence, witness how the philosopher grows 
animated and enthusiastic upon his theory, and 
how the musician kindles into fervor and inspi¬ 
ration upon his composition. 

How powerful is thought! How compelling 
is thought ! It glows in the poem and treatise, 
it stirs in the oration and sermon. It is carved 
in marble, and painted on canvas ; it is stamped 
on iron, and worked in silver. See it in the 
ships that float, in the cars that roll, in the col¬ 
umns and arches of the temple, and in the 
symbols and medallions of the monument. 
Hear it in the click of the press, in the sound 
of the wheel, in the blast of the bugle, in the 
tread of the army, in the debate of the senate, 
and the discourse of the pulpit. With thought 
man shall advance and achieve, leaving behind 
exploded theories and melancholy incongrui¬ 
ties, and passing on to higher acquirements and 
nobler accomplishments. 

Therefore Tennyson sings : 


Yet I doubt not thro’ the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
suns. 


We are not conscious of the moving energy 
of thought in the private circle nor in the pub¬ 
lic assembly. Persons will often commence a 


90 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


conversation without having the remotest idea 
what a vigorous current of thought will come 
sweeping upon the faculties and arousing the 
sympathies. Persons will sometimes strike a 
theme without any apparent interest, and show 
no feeling nor energy in the utterance, until by 
seeming accident they will touch a spring that 
will throw out amazing power, animating and 
kindling the company. The heart is heated 
and excited, and thought, rising from the mind 
of the speaker, and striking those who are 
listeners, they are swayed like trees by the 
wind, with the leaves giving their applause. 

For instance, sometimes the lawyer and the 
preacher will take up a subject of intense inter¬ 
est, and will bring to bear upon it all the re¬ 
sources of learning and argument ; but they 
will not make the desired impression till, by 
apparent accident, they come upon a great 
thought, which will rise like a startled bird with 
flaming wings. Then, with the heart glowing, 
with the voice earnest and sympathetic, min¬ 
gling the tones of the flute with the peals of 
the trumpet; with the language flowing like 
captivating music full of sweetness and power, 
ravishing the ear and flooding the eye, the 
assembly will come under their magnetic influ¬ 
ence, and will see what they see and feel what 


CURRENTS. 


91 


they feel, till the rushing current of thought 
spends its force, and is gone ! 

When the steel strikes the flint the spark 
flies. It was the discourse of Zeno which 
aroused and directed the thought of Cleanthes. 
It was the conversation of Socrates which in¬ 
spired and enriched the thought of Plato. No 
one can estimate the inspiration which passed 
from Richter to Otto. No one can comprehend 
- the stimulant which went from Da Vinci to 
Raphael. The members of the Roman Senate 
said their best things after listening to Cicero 
and Hortensius. The members of the English 
Parliament were forced to present their best 
thought after hearing Fox and Pitt, Disraeli 
and Macaulay. 

It was thought in the sermons of Origen, so 
scholarly and hopeful, and of Chrysostom, so 
profound and oratorical, that moved the con¬ 
gregation. It was thought in the discourses of 
Sydney Smith, so trenchant and brilliant, and 
of Robert Hall, so talented and eloquent, that 
stirred the assembly. After the speeches of 
Henry Clay, with his fascinating manner and 
magnetic utterance, and of Silas Wright, with 
his impressive bearing and weighty argument ; 
after the speeches of Webster, with his ponder¬ 
ous sentences lighted with the flashes of elo- 


92 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


quence, and of Calhoun, with his subtle analyses 
followed by strokes of logic ; after the speeches 
of Randolph, with his superior talents and in¬ 
cisive statements, and of Everett, with his 
scholarly acquirements and rhetorical achieve¬ 
ments, the American Congress was kindled and 
aroused, and its best thought found utterance 
and attention. 

The majority have allowed the minority to 
do their thinking. There are but few who have 
the ambition and courage to grapple with a 
great truth. There are but few who will attempt 
with ability to take hold of a momentous ques¬ 
tion and give it exhaustive treatment. They 
either lack interest or independence, and the 
result is they acquiesce in all the opinions and 
theories that are current and swaying. It re¬ 
quires a strong hand to throw the lance of truth 
against the golden armor of popular belief. A 
distinguished metaphysician declared that truth, 
whether in or out of fashion, is the measure of 
knowledge and the business of the understand¬ 
ing. 

An eminent painter is reported as saying 
that the undevout astronomer is mad. May 
we not believe that in this lower order of crea¬ 
tion, where we have so many tokens of wonder, 
that the undevout theorist is mad. How much 


CURRENTS . 


93 


in this sublunary dominion is there to overawe 
the mind and solemnize the thought. What 
impressive exhibitions of directing wisdom and 
•abounding goodness in this earthly paradise, 
where at the gates of purity and obedience 
stand Cherubim and Seraphim. How natu¬ 
ral and proper that we should have the solemn 
reflections and devout utterances of such minds 
as Thomas a Kempis, the fragrance of whose 
piety goes into every closet of prayer, and the 
spiritual expression and poetic imagery of such 
minds as Jeremy Taylor, the witchery of whose 
eloquence moves the multitude and wings their 
thought to heaven. 

When the sun drops into the west it throws 
up forms of incomparable grandeur: ships sail¬ 
ing and plunging with ropes of gold and sails 
of flame, citadels filled with burning splendor 
and their turrets flashing with dazzling reful¬ 
gence, mountains with their summits covered 
with glistening snow and their torrents hidden 
by an ethereal veil. So, when thought drops 
into the world, it throws up forms of inesti¬ 
mable value: art with its glories, literature 
with its beauties, law with its triumphs, his¬ 
tory with its revealments, mechanism with its 
wheels and lathes, science with its ingenious 
instruments and starry emblems, reform with its 


94 A PPLICA TION A ND A CHIE YEMEN T. 


banners and bugles, its broken chains and burn¬ 
ished crowns, with the century filled with men¬ 
tal activity and multiform industry, with Reli¬ 
gion and Philanthropy going forward, with 
the genius of equity shaping the destiny of 
nations, and with the Bell of Time hung in 
heaven and ringing in the golden period that 
is to come! 


MANNERS. 


CHEMISTRY investigates the constitution of 
material substances. It examines the perma¬ 
nent changes their mutual actions produce. 
In these substances there are certain properties 
of certain affinities. According to their prop¬ 
erties they attract or repel other substances. 
We here discover the laws of combination and 
crystallization, with their potent attractions. 

History likewise investigates the characters 
of mankind, the motives of their actions, and 
the nature of their attainments. It reveals the 
principles round which organizations and gov¬ 
ernments seem to crystallize. It portrays the 
manners which have a swaying influence over 
various classes and various periods. Manners 
cross the threshold of the cottage and the pal¬ 
ace, and they either repel or attract. According 
to their principles and qualities, men wield an 
influence that is lowering or uplifting. One 
class, by peculiar affinity, may organize into a 
band of desperadoes, another into a band of 


95 


9 6 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT, 


reformers. On the earth has fallen the shadow 
of the dungeon of Tyranny as well as that of 
the temple of Liberty. 

Men differ in talent and character as planets 
do in radiance and magnitude. The forest 
does not exhibit two leaves, nor does the ocean 
furnish two shells that are alike in every par¬ 
ticular. The abilities and dispositions of man¬ 
kind are as different as their features. With 
this variety of talent and character man has a 
peculiar individuality, which makes him, to a 
certain extent, attractive or repulsive. This 
marks out a place for him in society, where he 
soon shows which is the great force in his nature, 
the centripetal or the centrifugal. The differ¬ 
ence in these forces is witnessed in the career 
of eminent persons in history like Cromwell 
and Charles I., Washington and George III., 
Mirabeau and Louis XVI. 

Man cannot exchange this individuality more 
than a tree can exchange its foliage. He can¬ 
not obscure this personality more than a tree 
can obscure its genus. We comprehend the 
different families of trees by their bark and 
leaf. So we comprehend the different charac¬ 
ters of mankind by their features and tempera¬ 
ments. The qualities of sandstone differ from 
the qualities of granite ; but both are needed 


MANNERS. 


97 


and valued. So men differ in talent and dis¬ 
position ; but they fill important places. They 
are connected with those activities out of which 
come tools and inventions, books and discov¬ 
eries, laws and institutions. 

Phidias works upon the marble, Scipio leads 
the army, Apollodorus toils upon the canvas, 
Demosthenes stirs the assembly. With this di¬ 
versity of genius and vocation we look through 
the window of history to catch a glimpse of 
those who have the finest manners. We are 
not to inquire here as to the greatness of Moses 
as a law-giver, nor of Tubal Cain as an artisan ; 
to the renown of Joshua as a leader, nor of 
Nimrod as a hunter, but to that behavior which 
depresses or inspires. 

Cato became popular with the Romans by 
his behavior. He was a man of inflexible in¬ 
tegrity as well as remarkable ability, and he 
won his way to position and power. He was 
on the side of justice and liberty, and such 
were his capacity and behavior that he travelled 
from the Furrow to the Censorship. Reared 
in poverty and pressed by necessity, he had 
those winning graces to supplement his princi¬ 
ples and virtues which drew to his side the 
noblest and stoutest of the Roman Republic. 
In the most tumultuous seasons the most 
7 


98 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


powerful factions melted away in his presence 
as banks of snow at the approach of spring. 

David ingratiated himself with the Israelites 
by his deportment. He won the hearts of 
those who lingered in his presence, and became 
rounds in the ladder of his elevation and author¬ 
ity. He had talent and courage; but these 
alone were not sufficient to endow this shep¬ 
herd with the potency he wielded and the 
majesty he exhibited. He added to his sa¬ 
gacity not only administrative talents, but chiv¬ 
alrous qualities, which justified the Prophet in 
giving him the Sceptre. It was the behavior 
of David which elicited the admiration of Jona¬ 
than, and knitted that tenacious friendship 
which the terrible machinations of the king 
could not unravel. It was this behavior that 
intimidated his foes and encouraged his friends 
and smoothed his path from the Sheepfold to 
the Throne. 

It is not the opulent nor the scholarly that 
wield the greatest influence. It is the noble 
and the generous, whatever may be their pos¬ 
sessions or attainments. It is those who have 
not only good breeding but fine nature, out of 
which blossom those qualities which attract. 
With force of character and strength of prin¬ 
ciple, they have the spirit and bearing which 


MANNERS. 


99 


compel respect. There is a charm in their 
conversation and deportment ; and they gain 
the esteem and confidence of men. They are 
gentle in spirit and amiable in disposition ; and 
their attitude and expression without the rules 
of fashion and etiquette are pleasing. Their 
manners preponderate over titles as faculties 
do over implements, and their virtues outweigh 
ceremonies as pistoles do ribbons. In their 
presence the timorous are encouraged, the 
doubting are strengthened, the turbulent are 
soothed, the humble are lifted. 

Good manners is the art of making those people easy with 
whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest persons un¬ 
easy is the best-bred in the company.— Swift. 

They call out the hidden qualities which are 
radiant and beautiful in the social circle, just as 
the sun calls out the charming flowers from the 
hesitating planet. 

Rules of conduct, like forms of expression, 
differ with nationalities. Emerson devotes a 
volume to the peculiar qualities of the Eng¬ 
lish. Dickens sketches some of the endemic 
characteristics of the Americans. An English¬ 
man is respectful, but reserved and reticent ; an 
American is urbane, but loquacious and demon, 
strative. An Englishman with severe training 
will hold himself in the grasp of a rigid pro. 


IOO A PPLICA TION A ND A CHIE YEMEN T. 

priety; an American with protuberant vanity 
will speak and act with impetuous freedom. 
An Englishman will show the greatest defer¬ 
ence to the opulent and learned, the titled and 
distinguished ; an American will appear among 
them with independence and composure, and 
will imagine that he is their equal, if not their 
superior. 

An Englishman will enter a hotel without 
casting a glance at the guests, and will drop 
his voice to a whisper; an American will look 
interestedly about him, and hail with vehement 
utterance and clasp of the hand whoever may 
claim his acquaintance. If the Englishman is 
sometimes gruff and blunt, domineering in 
manner and disposition, running counter to 
your feelings and prejudices, the American is 
sometimes presumptuous and impertinent, bor¬ 
ing you with questions and stifling you with 
epithets ; and amid the peculiar characteristics 
of both we find those qualities and principles 
which must lead the world to better govern¬ 
ment and higher civilization. 

Trees differ in bark and foliage, and races 
differ in blood and manners. With variety of 
races we have variety of temperaments and dis¬ 
positions. There are no two waves which have 
the same bulk and outline, and there are no two 


MANNERS. 


IOI 


races that have the same thought and charac¬ 
ter. The Irish are witty and sparkling, great in 
description and panegyric, and full of impulse 
and pugnacity; whilst the French are genteel 
and polite, vivacious and brilliant, hardy and 
courageous. The Italians are courteous and 
respective, dreamy ^and poetic, not makers of 
law but lovers of art ; whilst the Germans are 
genial and pleasant, sturdy and industrious, 
not conservative but progressive, full of intel¬ 
lectual energy, fond of innocent amusement, 
and leaders of music and philosophy. 

The Irish have given us great wits and 
orators, the French renowned soldiers and 
scientists, the Italians magnificent artists and 
composers, and the Germans distinguished 
thinkers and poets. And in all these nationali¬ 
ties, with their characteristics, manners have 
exercised a powerful influence in the shop and 
the court, in the cottage and the palace, and 
have told upon the events of history and the 
reaches of philosophy. 

Chesterfield says that good breeding carries 
along with it a dignity that is respected by the 
most petulant. This dignity must spring from 
nobleness of character and majesty of deport¬ 
ment. It cannot be manufactured for the occa¬ 
sion, for it is a plant of slow growth, unfolding 


102 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

with the cultivation of the intellect and the 
spirit. It cannot be buttoned on like a fashion¬ 
able garment and worn into genteel company, 
and thrown aside when the assembly has broken 
up and departed, and the lamp is quenched in 
the hall. With those of breeding and culture, 
who are thoughtful and courteous, dignity is 
a quality of their character, as the nose is a 
part of their face. The breast of the oriole 
cannot be altered ; the beak of the eagle cannot 
be straightened. 

Addison, in referring to this subject, says, 
that complaisance renders a superior amiable, 
an equal agreeable, and an inferior acceptable. 
It sweetens conversation, smooths the points of 
distinction, and makes a road for mutual es¬ 
teem. Men of fine manners and good princi¬ 
ples are not haughty and arrogant, but humble 
and simple. They are not ostentatious and 
domineering, but modest and gentle. They 
are victors without artillery. They are not 
only pleasant and affable, but they have that 
complaisance which quickens the soul as the 
sunlight quickens the earth. They readily 
comprehend the ability and disposition of 
those who come into their presence, and they 
are as attentive to the lowly and untutored as 
they are to the scholarly and eminent. 


MANNERS. 


103 


The swaying power of a charming manner is 
witnessed in the character and career of the 
most potent and illustrious in history. See 
this in Mansfield, the eminent lawyer, and Wil- 
berforce, the distinguished philanthropist. See 
this in Chatham, the brilliant orator and influ¬ 
ential statesman, and Fenelon, the graceful 
writer and popular minister. What controlling 
power in the impressive manner of Mirabeau, 
who was the master of factions and assemblies, 
and of Marlborough, who was the leader of 
armies and - the ruler of cabinets. The .flowers 
that are filled with sweetness attract the bees 
and send them back to their hives laden and 
enriched. 

The greatness and nobleness of mankind are 
manifested in their courteous treatment of the 
humblest person. In the presence of such men 
the various orders of talent and culture find a 
welcome to a social banquet which calls forth 
the best things from the mental cabinet of the 
company. The soul is unbound, the tongue 
is unloosed, faces gleam as in the light of a 
festival, and there is a joyous mingling of con¬ 
genial elements. Thomas Fuller says, as the 
sword of the best-tempered metal is most flex¬ 
ible, so the truly generous are most pliant and 
courteous in their behavior to their inferiors; 


104 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and Dean Swift, touching this subject, follows 
the same train of thought. 

I have known men, grossly injured in their affairs, depart 
pleased, at least silent, only because they were injured in 
good language.—S outh. 

Much has to be considered in estimating the 
influence of men who are prominent. You 
have to take into your consideration the physi¬ 
cal as well as the social and the mental. You 
must take into your reckoning the features as 
well as the faculties and the virtues. An indi¬ 
vidual with a fine graceful form and a rich 
flexible voice, with features neatly chiselled 
and handsome, with garments artistically ar¬ 
ranged and becoming, has, at the start, a 
decided advantage. The lamp may not give 
much light, but it has polished glass and burn¬ 
ished plate, and it arrests attention, if it does 
not evoke admiration. Take men of command¬ 
ing ability in the pulpit, the senate, the army, 
the theatre, or in the combinations and mo¬ 
nopolies which control the affairs of traffic, 
where Presence as well as Intellect has force, 
and thrust them into diminutive and unprepos¬ 
sessing bodies, and give them angular and 
homely features, with voices which are harsh 
and shrill, and see how giants may be whittled 
into pigmies ! 


MANNERS. 


105 


Hazlitt, in an able essay on Irving and 
Chalmers, the two noted pulpit orators of 
Scotland, shows how the former, for a time, 
produced a greater sensation than the latter. 
Irving was a man of large frame and handsome 
visage, had splendid qualities of voice and 
darting expressions of eye, and his presence was 
commanding. He was in figure, in attitude, in 
gesture and action, Titanic. Chalmers had not 
so commanding a presence, and was not so 
agreeable a speaker, his features were not so 
elegant, his gestures were less studied, but, as 
Hazlitt says, he had more scope of intellect and 
greater intensity of purpose. 

He surpassed his rival in matter, and instead 
of acting upon his congregation he was worked 
upon by his subject, till he became the mag¬ 
netic battery that moved the multitude with 
the electric flashes of eloquence. He was sim¬ 
ple in manner, and when aroused in preaching 
he seemed like a giant rending his fetters. The 
vigorous intellect of Chalmers had not only to 
cope with the ability and utterance of Irving, 
but to counteract the impressiveness of his 
physical accomplishments. 

La Bruyere writes that a man’s worth is esti¬ 
mated by his conduct. It is conduct that 
reveals character, exhibits breeding, and shows 


IO6 APPLICATION- AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

what are the forces which have ascendancy and 
control. A man cannot be judged by his pos¬ 
sessions and attainments, but by the conduct 
which tells upon the community. It is not the 
frame, but the picture we admire ; not the gold, 
but the diamond we value. We care nothing for 
opulence and scholarship, unless they can be em¬ 
ployed as vehicles to convey to the people some¬ 
thing which will expand the mind and enrich 
the life. Then waters which are refreshing and 
healing break out in the desert places in society. 

The conduct which is noble, like the caloric 
of the sunbeam, melts the frostwork of selfish¬ 
ness and despotism, and calls forth the tendrils 
of justice and magnanimity. Behold the con¬ 
duct of Cincinnatus and Epaminondas, of 
Clarkson and Oberlin, and mark how it tells 
upon government and civilization. Historians 
weigh no crowns or thrones, but the conduct 
which created sublime epochs, reared generous 
institutions, and made a place in the world for 
Virtue and Genius. 

There is no character so respected and hon¬ 
ored as the gentleman. 

He is properly a compound of the various good qualities 
that embellish mankind.— Steele. 

There is a spontaneous reverence for the genial 
qualities which adhere to this character. It 


MANNERS. 


107 


has been portrayed by the historian and 
the dramatist ; it has been honored in the 
court and on the field. The word gentleman, 
like the word electricity, cannot be easily de¬ 
scribed ; for, as stated by another, it has no 
synonym and no correlative. It is more than 
loyalty and chivalry, more than courtesy and 
kindness, more than dignity of character and 
majesty of deportment. It combines honor 
with humility, veracity with meekness, and 
makes purity glow in the heart as a diamond 
burns on the breast. If it have splendid schol¬ 
arship, it does not ignore the uneducated ; if it 
have soaring ambition, it does not neglect the 
downtrodden. If it be the soul of honor, it is 
the heart of gentleness ; and swayed by a right¬ 
eous principle, it respects the peasant as well 
as the king, and values the hammer as well as 
the crown. Back of the wisdom and virtue of 
Washington, the ability and dignity of Hamil¬ 
ton, the genius and politeness of Raleigh, and 
the brilliancy and chivalry of Sidney, there is 
the character of the gentleman. 

We see much in the world that is fantastic 
and frivolous. We see a great deal that is hol¬ 
low and superficial, making the social atmos¬ 
phere not only chilling but disagreeable. We 
find sometimes insincerity and duplicity crop- 


108 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

ping out of the heart which beats under costly 
apparel. We find sometimes honor and truth¬ 
fulness baffled and mocked by subterfuges and 
prevarications, with shadows of condemnation 
gathering upon the walls. 

How often is good sense here dropped like a 
burning candle ; and idle gossip sweeps over 
the faculties like briny foam over the rocks. 
See the pretension and assumption, and mark 
the unnaturalness of manner and posture ; with 
agony stretching the facial muscles out of their 
legitimate places. And then in compliments, 
as well as in insinuations, see what falsehood 
is practiced—falsehood that is stubborn and 
wicked—falsehood that travels through the 
community with the energy and destruction of 
small-pox. How courteous and polite, how 
friendly and sincere, did Iago seem ; and yet 
he was the painted devil whose lies dragged 
Othello, wrenched and bleeding, through the 
black gates of ruin ! 

But we can better tolerate the conventional 
and superficial in society than the ungainly and 
slovenly. 

Virtue itself offends when coupled with forbidding manners. 

Middleton. 

We like lace and plume better than coarse¬ 
ness and vulgarity ; and we find more which 


MANNERS. 


109 


pleases in gold-leaf than in lamp-black! There 
are those in all grades of society who are slug¬ 
gish and boorish, and who fret the faculties 
with their jabber. They are found in parlors 
as well as in workshops, and they repel the 
cultivated and refined by their utterance and 
bearing. 

Goldsmith utters but a common truism when 
he says that ceremonies may differ, but genu¬ 
ine politeness is everywhere the same. It can¬ 
not be guided by arbitrary rules nor moulded 
into artificial forms. It gushes from the heart 
as a spring from the hill, and it encourages 
and gladdens wherever it flows. It springs 
from those who have not only good-nature, 
but good-breeding, and whose mental powers 
are so luminous and whose moral qualities are 
so pleasing that men linger in their presence. 
Politeness is not a product to be purchased in 
the market and carried into the social circle 
where natural refinement fills the hour. Arti¬ 
ficial flowers are not attractive or desirable 
when the months of summer are shaking their 
floral beauties at every door. Hang peaches 
on the elm, and apples on the oak, and by the 
bark and leaf the nature of the trees will be 
discovered. Button politeness on character 
when it is coarse and crude, wrenched by vio- 


IIO A PPLICA TION A ND A CHIP YEMEN T. 

lence and stained by meanness, and in spite of 
conventional mannerism the people will appre¬ 
hend the real qualities of the man. 

It is as natural for a gentleman to be 
courteous and affable as it is for a constellation 
to swing and shine. He is governed by no 
rules of etiquette, no forms of ceremony, but 
is swayed by a spirit that is considerate and 
magnanimous, like Charles James Fox and 
William Penn. He is not punctilious or 
fastidious, and has no respect or sympathy 
for those things in fashionable society which 
are artificial and conventional, and freeze the 
streams of didactic conversation. He is not 
influenced by the formality, nor oblivious to 
the mockery, which obtain in the social domin¬ 
ion, and fill the hour with wearisome repeti¬ 
tions and unmeaning compliments. He is 
governed by his own tastes and ideas, is inde¬ 
pendent of the caprices and demands of the 
world, and will not surrender his manhood to 
fawning laudation and stooping flattery. 


An unwary openness causeth contempt, but a little reserved¬ 
ness, respect ; and handsome courtesy, kindness.— Fuller. 


While he is thus independent and straight¬ 
forward, he is courteous and attentive. He 


MANNERS. 


I I I 

will make all feel easy and comfortable in his 
presence, and then bird-like natures long silent 
will begin to twitter. He has poise like 
Diogenes and Aristides, like Hampden and 
Marvell, like Hancock and Franklin; and this 
gives him force. If he should become feverish 
and excited by the ceremonies and punctilios 
of society, or the contention of monopolies 
and the debates of legislatures, so as to lose 
his equanimity and composure, he would be 
shorn of his power and majesty. When the 
bucket loses its equilibrium the water spills. 
But having control of himself, he has control 
of the company ; and when he takes his seat 
his chair holds a king. 

This self-possession was characteristic of such 
men as Socrates and Aristotle, and as John¬ 
son and Coleridge, when their conversation 
touched upon questions of philosophical inter¬ 
est, and held with breathless attention the 
scholar and thinker in Athens, and London. 
There is no grander picture than Luther in a 
monk’s gown at the Diet of Worms, and Frank¬ 
lin in a farmer’s vesture at the Court of Paris, 
the former moving emperors and cardinals, and 
the latter swaying diplomats and courtiers. 

There are men of conspicuous ability who 
augment their influence and popularity by 


112 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

their humane sympathies and gracious man¬ 
ners. They are men like Leigh Hunt, the 
charming essayist, and Robert Southey, the 
popular miscellaneous writer, who scattered 
sunshine in the path of the meritorious and 
unrecognized. They are men like McClellan, 
the victor at Antietam, and Hancock, the hero 
at Gettysburg, both superb soldiers, popular 
commanders, and accomplished gentlemen. 

We find in many burly natures great springs 
of kindness and sympathy. Back of the ex¬ 
terior somewhat uncouth, back of the manner 
somewhat abrupt, there is a good heart. It is 
the sun behind the cloud, smiting its blackness, 
throwing it into golden billows, and then con¬ 
verting it into an illuminated temple. A man 
of this peculiar type is like a hickory tree ; if 
he has the rough bark of appearance and de¬ 
portment, he has also the toughened fibres of 
integrity, and drops the sweet fruit of benevo¬ 
lence. He resembles a diamond before it has 
been struck by fire and wheel, and passes 
from the hands of the workman into the 
market. 

Laurence Sterne has portrayed such a char¬ 
acter in the person of Uncle Toby, a captain 
in the army of Flanders, wounded at the siege 
of Namur, and forced to retire from service. 


MANNERS. 


113 

He was so simple and childlike in manner, so 
gentle and amiable in disposition, never strik¬ 
ing hands with jewelled Hypocrisy, nor eating 
at the table with restless Envy. He was so 
gallant and courageous, so sincere and trans¬ 
parent, so full of the milk of human kindness, 
whistling away dull care, and beckoning to his 
side the white-winged angels of Mercy and 
Compassion. 

Through the entire story of his marches and 
battles, his tender passages of love with the 
Widow Wadman, his outgushing sympathy for 
the fly that was trying to escape through the 
window, his acts of kindness and tears of sorrow 
for a dying soldier, Lieutenant Le Fevre at the 
village tavern, he is the same genuine character, 
simple and impetuous, sincere and generous. 
Since the days of Shakespeare no character has 
been drawn more ably and charmingly, clothed 
with more kindness and nobleness than Uncle 
Toby; though Smollett and Fielding were 
eminently successful at human portraiture; 
though Dickens and Thackeray were supremely 
honored for their masterly delineations ; though 
Sir Walter Scott, with his wonderful creations, 
took hold of the world’s heart. 

We do not become discoverers by reading the 

voyages of such navigators as Cabot and Ves- 
8 


114 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

pucci. Neither do we become gentlemen by 
reading the writings of such essayists as Ches¬ 
terfield and La Rochefoucauld. We may find 
truths and hints in chapters upon etiquette and 
politeness, which may be wholesome and valu¬ 
able. But genuine politeness springs from no 
form or rule in the social circle. It must 
come from those undefinable qualities which 
give grace and force to the gentleman. The 
ore must pass through the furnace before it 
drops its obstructing properties, and comes 
forth flashing silver. 


The happy gift of being agreeable seems to consist not in 
one but in an assemblage of talents tending to communicate 
delight.— Cumberland. 

Some men need blasting and smelting before 
they are able to exhibit their finest qualities. 
Those of kingly virtues who have swaying 
manners, have not only good blood, but inde¬ 
pendence and composure. They are natural 
and easy, and cannot be jostled out of their 
equilibrium. The Pirates mistook the charac¬ 
ter and measure of Caesar: he was undisturbed 
and collected ; they were overawed and excited. 
The needle of the compass points north. Good 
sailors do not lose their composure in a storm. 
Good soldiers do not lose their self-possession 


MANNERS. 


”5 

in battle. It was the composure of Columbus 
which kept mutiny from rising; and it was the 
self-possession of Napoleon which beckoned 
victory to his eagles. 

Look at the antipathies and prejudices of 
men, and see what benign offices are filled by 
Toleration and Charity. Look how opposite 
and paradoxical they are ; and see how they 
mingle under the rule of Gentility and Polite¬ 
ness. We see those who are thoughtful and tac¬ 
iturn, demure and reserved ; and those who are 
pragmatical and loquacious, and we meet those 
who, without a particle of modesty, are always 
boasting of their valor and courage, their abilities 
and their achievements. They are always extra¬ 
vagant in their statements, and in their attempts 
to magnify what they have seen or done, we 
open the shutters of Discernment and behold 
Falsehood getting ready to go abroad. 

We also meet with those who are hospitable 
to a single idea; and they cling to this with 
an unyielding tenacity. They may be earnest 
students of ornithology like Audubon and Deg¬ 
land, but they possess and exhibit but one bird ; 
and that is more likely to be a buzzard than an 
eagle. Then there are others who are consider¬ 
ate and obliging, who have no opinions and prin¬ 
ciples of their own, and who will agree with 


T 1 6 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

almost every person they meet. If you are an 
orthodox or a heretic, a republican or a monarch¬ 
ist, a radical or a conservative, they will with¬ 
out a particle of embarrassment approve and 
coincide. It is their pleasure to accommodate. 
If you are a believer in Wesley or Calvin,-or a 
sympathizer with Bolingbroke or Rousseau, or 
an admirer of Talleyrand or Macchiavelli, they 
will not hesitate to acquiesce. 

And thus in society we find the various 
classes of mankind with their peculiarities and 
idiosyncrasies. We find the elements of con- 
gruity and incongruity, the qualities of homo¬ 
geneity and heterogeneity in all their manifold 
groupings. Under the ruling of manners all dis¬ 
positions and temperaments, as well as opinions 
and principles, within certain limits, are recog¬ 
nized and allowed. Men who differ in talent 
and disposition, in politics and religion, are 
brought into social relations without any 
friction or explosion. They may have diversity 
of views and tastes, but with courtesy and re¬ 
finement they are kept from measuring steel 
and striking fire. Manners thus make society 
not only a possibility but a reality. Take man¬ 
ners away, and society, like a building without 
beams and studs, at the mercy of the elements, 
goes down crashing. In manners there is an 


MANNERS. 


II 7 


attractive energy or a social cement which holds 
mankind together in society, as bricks in a wall 
or as blocks of granite or marble in a temple. 

Plautus, the dramatist, says that good man¬ 
ners, by their deeds, easily adorn an humble 
garb. Lepidi mores turpem ornatum facile factis 
comprobant . A man may have intellect and 
scholarship, but he needs manners to adorn his 
character and widen his influence. A man 
with ability and erudition, and nothing that is 
pleasing and winning in bearing, is shorn of 
much of his influence. Whatever may be man’s 
talent and learning, he needs manners to give 
his faculties and acquirements a proper setting. 
A man without breeding and politeness is a 
thorn-bush, snatching wool from the fleece and 
keeping the shepherd at a distance. But when 
he assumes the character of the gentleman he 
becomes attractive. To possess this character 
he must respect and cherish truth; in fact, 
truth must enter the core of his existence, and 
give tone to his personality. Chesterfield ad¬ 
mits that truth makes the gentleman, and 
Casaubon declares that truth is the founda¬ 
tion of all knowledge and the cement of all 
society. 

We seldom reflect upon the influence of 
manners in business. 


11 8 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Civility costs nothing and buys everything.—L ady Mon¬ 
tagu. 

They remove obstacles, destroy alienations, 
and open channels of communication and en¬ 
terprise. They smooth the wrinkles of hatred 
and animosity, and provoke the feeling of good¬ 
will and friendship. They thaw the streams of 
selfishness and parsimony, and call up the 
flowerets of generosity and magnanimity. They 
remove the barriers to acquaintance and fellow¬ 
ship, and establishing confidence between man¬ 
kind they turn the wheels of enterprise and 
traffic. Men begin to deal and trade ; and re¬ 
ciprocal interest, passing with silent energy 
through the community, stimulates business 
and commerce. In this direction courtesies 
accomplish more than bayonets. 

There are men who seem to be unfortunately 
constituted. They are twisted in their faculties 
and feelings. They are repelling in manner 
and conversation. They are honest and vir¬ 
tuous, but they have nothing pleasing and 
winning in manner. They mean to treat every¬ 
body with deference and respect, but they do 
it, unconsciously, with sullen brow and crabbed 
speech. They seem morose and rigid, wintry 
in spirit and disposition, and when we come 
into their presence they freeze our streams of 





MANNERS. 


I 19 

kindly feeling. If Samuel Johnson with his 
greatness and distinction as a scholar and con¬ 
versationalist, and Thomas Carlyle with his 
ability and eminence as a thinker and writer, 
could have cultivated a more pleasing manner, 
how much more potent and swaying would 
have been their influence in the social circle. 

The fact is the eminent lexicographer was so 
uncouth in manner and dictatorial in conversa¬ 
tion that many of the most refined and sensi¬ 
tive dreaded his appearance. And yet with his 
immense talent and accurate learning he was a 
man of the kindest sympathies, and in his un¬ 
broken friendship for Goldsmith and Boswell, 
and his tender regard for the destitute and un¬ 
fortunate, he showed that he had a warm heart. 
Instead of being admired only by such men as 
Burke and Garrick, Banks and Reynolds, Beau- 
clerk and Oglethorpe, he might with a more 
pleasing manner have swayed the multitude, 
and taken sunshine and gladness into the hum¬ 
blest places. 

There are those who are not only richly gifted 
but happily organized. They have engaging 
speech and winning grace, and you listen and 
admire. Their smile, like the look of a sum¬ 
mer morning, reaches into the waiting valley of 
the heart. They at once remove your timidity, 


120 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

eradicate your awkwardness, and call forth 
your confidence and esteem. You are not only 
comfortable and delighted in their presence, 
but you begin to throw out the best things in 
your cherished cabinet. They arouse your 
feelings, they kindle your powers, they make 
your tongue tuneful and eloquent. Every hin¬ 
drance is removed, every barrier is overcome, 
and relations are established for successful 
business and co-operative friendship. Such is 
the class of men who succeed as merchants, 
physicians, lawyers, traffickers, and ministers ; 
their talents are supplemented and strengthened 
by their manners. Matthews, the able and 
popular writer, says that when Lundy Foote, 
the merchant, said to the little beggar girl who 
bought a pennyworth of snuff, “ Thank you, 
my dear; please call again,” it made him a mil- 
lionnaire. 

We remember on a certain occasion that 
Henry Clay stopped at Wheeling when on his 
way to Congress. As soon as it was known 
that the distinguished Senator from Kentucky 
was stopping at the hotel the leading citizens 
of Wheeling called to pay him devout homage. 
The parlors were soon well filled ; and as the 
people gathered around the Kentucky states¬ 
man, who was very tall, he resembled Mont 


MANNERS. 


12 I 


Blanc, with his snowy forehead, overlooking 
the surrounding mountain peaks. A boy, 
moved by an unyielding curiosity, and habited 
in a cassinette roundabout with a damaged 
chip-hat under his arm, entered, and, checked 
by the rein of modesty, halted at the door. 

The Kentucky statesman, seeing that the 
youth was dashed, and looked awkward and 
uncertain, immediately begged the company to 
excuse him for a moment, when he approached 
the lad with a smile which removed at once all 
embarrassment and estrangement. He shook 
hands with the youth ; and when he learned, 
in answer to his questions, that the lad was be¬ 
reft of both father and mother, and was strug¬ 
gling with hardship and poverty, he dropped 
his voice into tones of tenderness and sym¬ 
pathy. After giving the youth some excellent 
advice in relation to industry and morality, 
very briefly and kindly, and hoping for his 
success in the future, he placed his hand on 
the lad’s head and prayed: 

God bless this boy. 

That lad went down stairs out of that building 
with the heart touched by a peculiar sensation, 
and the light of hope streaming over the facul¬ 
ties and cheering a troubled pathway.* 

* This lad was J. Hazard Hartzell.— -Editors. 


122 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


“ How far that little candle throws its beams.” 

We are told that Orpheus, the son of Apollo, 
was presented with a lyre by his father. He 
rung such charming music from the instrument 
that not only his fellow-beings but the wild 
beasts were softened and soothed by his 
strains. They seemed to lose their wildness 
and ferocity, and, entranced by the melody and 
sweetness of the lyre, they gathered around the 
player; and the trees and the rocks became 
sensible to the charm. 

Orpheus with his lute made trees 
And the mountain tops that freeze, 

Bow themselves, when he did sing. 

Shakespeare. 

Something kindred to the power of Orpheus is 
wielded in society by that individual who has 
the virtues and graces of the gentleman, and 
strikes the Lyre of Love. 

Unless a man has manners in his vocation he 
will have no manners in his parlor. The tree 
which will not blossom in the forest will not 
blossom in the dooryard. The shell which has 
no beauty on the sea-shore will have no beauty 
in the cabinet. In order to be polite and con¬ 
siderate in the drawing-room men must be 
polite and considerate in their vocations. Men 


MANNERS. 


123 


cannot be boors in the workshop and behind 
the counter, boors in the profession of the 
lawyer and physician, and gentlemen in the 
drawing-room. When men leave their individ¬ 
uality in their business or calling, and attempt 
to play a part for which they are unfitted, they 
make a sorry spectacle. 

We see the greatness of the gentleman in 
Thackeray’s comparison of the last George of 
England with the first George of America. 
We look into Carlton Palace, furnished with all 
the luxury and elegance which the government 
could devise, and there we find the prince of 
Great Britain in his buckles and satins, his 
diamonds and laces, exhibiting no virtue to 
inspire the people, and engaging in no enter¬ 
prise to benefit the kingdom. There are giants 
in Parliament and Literature, masters in Diplo¬ 
macy and Science, and those of genius and 
power in Art and Law, and by their talents 
and achievements adding to the glory of British 
history; but they are not gathered in his vision. 
His window is darkened. 

But turn from this scene of courtly splendor 
to the camp-ground of Washington, where, with 
his purity and goodness, his example of sacri¬ 
fice and patriotism, soldiers march with bleed¬ 
ing feet on direful fields to gain for America 


124 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

the great boon of liberty. He has the attain¬ 
ments and accomplishments which pertain to 
the gentleman as well as the commander ; and 
though canopied by clouds of poverty and 
hardship, and confronted by Treasons and De¬ 
feats, he bears himself with composure and 
equanimity, he lifts himself in majestic pro¬ 
portions, and leads his burdened country to 
freedom and glory. With blandishment of 
manner what greatness of character, resting on 
the granite-like qualities of honor and integrity, 
to which lovers of Justice and Humanity will 
look with stooping reverence forever! 

Manners, to be pleasing and uplifting, must 
grow out of the generous qualities of the soul. 
They must be rooted in purity and veracity, 
and be as natural and graceful as the sway- 
ings of the branch to the breeze. They must 
characterize the trader and mechanic, the 
philosopher and statesman, the historian and 
philanthropist, the thinker who plods, and the 
poet who soars, and all who would lighten the 
burdens and soften the asperities of life, and be 
an example to the Young and a helper of the 
World. 


OPPORTUNITY. 


Draper, the vigorous writer, to illustrate 
the power of instinct, refers to the birds that 
follow the sun in the spring as it passes the 
equator and throws a flood of light and cheer 
across the Northern Hemisphere. When sum¬ 
mer is ended and autumn winds suggest the 
chill of winter, these birds seem to comprehend 
the nature of the elements, and return with the 
light and warmth of the sun to the Southern 
Clime. By instinct they embrace the oppor¬ 
tunity, and their movements are in harmony 
with law, whilst beneath their wings are fields 
of beauty and plenty, and above are skies of 
favor and glory. In the flight of the bird there 
is a lesson for man. 

In the improvement of the opportunity lies 
one of the secrets of success. It is a subject of 
vital importance, for it relates not only to char¬ 
acter and usefulness, but to destiny and glory. 
It is a beam of light filled with quickening 
energy and expansive power. It is an hour 


126 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

struck from the wheels of time, and comes 
girdled with melody and pregnant with events. 
It is a door thrown open by some invisible 
agency, through which the vigilant toiler may 
pass into the temple of wealth or fame. It is 
the invaluable moment which lifts men upon 
the pedestal of honor, crowns heroes and bene¬ 
factors, writes laws with a hand that is inspired, 
proclaims decrees with a voice that is prophetic, 
and determines the destiny of nations. 

The circle of human activity is filled with 
ample opportunities for labor and success. 
And when these are improved we find a wheel 
harnessed, a verse written, a truth revealed, or a 
deed performed which thrills mankind. When 
these are improved we find the wilderness re¬ 
moved, the railroad constructed, and the hum 
of toil rises to greet the dawn. When these 
are improved the mine is opened, the plant is 
classified, the mineral is analyzed, the fossil is 
unearthed, and the material universe is forced 
to unravel her mysteries and reveal her glories. 
When these are improved we find Invention 
and Discovery marching into new dominions, 
Commerce whitening every ocean, Traffic filling 
every street, and Learning and Morality de¬ 
veloping the highest powers and noblest quali¬ 
ties. 


OPPORTUNITY. 


127 


Improving the opportunity gives art a gallery, 
science an academy, law a temple, and reform 
a victory. These assist in elevating mankind, 
and in advancing a civilization which favors the 
greatest decorum and the broadest culture. 
Ambition is quickened and insinewed, and be¬ 
gins to show great feats of marvellous power ; 
and Genius, aroused and animated, mounts to 
brilliant realms with unconquerable wings. In¬ 
dustry pushes into prominence the symbols of 
an age of iron ; Invention frees the million from 
the wheels of toil and makes the age of iron 
one of thought and power. 

While the triumphs of machinery, with fac¬ 
tories smoking upon every stream and locomo¬ 
tives whistling through every State, give a 
mighty impulse to business and commerce, 
they likewise usher in the opportunity for 
Learning to kindle its fires, History to reveal 
its truth, Poetry to move the heart with its 
imagery and melody, and Religion to touch 
the deep springs of life, clothe the soul in 
spiritual beauty, and light the candles of wis¬ 
dom and devotion in the gloomiest avenues of 
the world. 

Men who are successful, who become opulent 
or learned, or climb to positions of distinguished 
honor, signalize the propitious occasion with a 


128 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

strenuous effort. In obedience to the law of 
success they toss the grass when the sun is 
shining; they launch the ship when the tide is 
rising; they unfurl the sail when the wind is 
blowing. Pertinent is the language of the 
eminent dramatist: 

There is a tide in the affairs of men, 

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 

Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries : 

And we must take the current when it serves, 

Or lose our ventures. 

In realizing the occasion and improving the 
opportunity, men rise from the humblest places. 
They become not only thinkers and leaders but 
workers of wonders and interpreters of visions. 
They study and labor with assiduity and perse¬ 
verance, overcoming the greatest obstacles and 
conquering the hardest circumstances. They 
become efficient in mechanics, in commerce, in 
science or diplomacy, in architecture or theolo¬ 
gy, and with the undaunted mind and the 
unsluggish will they open avenues of thought 
and wealth. We see them in the practice of 
law and medicine, in the study of art and 
philosophy, in the domain of business and 
traffic, and in the effort to promote truth and 
learning. 


OPPORTUNITY. 


I29 


When Cleanthes came to Athens to follow . 
intellectual pursuits, it is said that he was so 
poor that he was compelled to draw water by 
night, as a common laborer, for the public 
gardens. He applied himself in the most sedu¬ 
lous manner to the study of philosophy, and 
being unable to purchase paper, he wrote the 
heads of the able discourses of his master on 
bones and shells. By economy and diligence, 
and holding fast to the heart of nature and 
science, and embracing the opportunity for 
study, he rose to eminence as a thinker and 
philosopher. 

And he who waits to have his task marked out, 

Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled. 

Lowell. 

When Archimedes was studying and experi¬ 
menting in Syracuse, he was compelled to 
struggle against the strictures of necessity. 
But he was enthusiastic and persevering in his 
mathematical pursuits, and, by improving the 
opportunity, he enriched geometry and me¬ 
chanics by his important discoveries. While 
bathing he perceived that his body displaced a 
volume of water equal to his own bulk, and he 
ran, without replacing his clothing, to proclaim 
the secret. He was always watchful and dili¬ 
gent, and whenever opportunity knocked at the 
9 


I 30 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

door of his mind she was greeted and wel¬ 
comed. When Marcellus laid siege to Syracuse, 
this laborious student summoned his intellectual 
energies and invented powerful machines for 
the defence of the city. And when he passed 
from the living, after a series of brilliant triumphs 
in mechanics, the cylinder was engraved upon 
his tombstone and his name went into history. 

A Latin author says that opportunity has 
hair in front, behind she is bald ; if you seize 
her by the forelock you may hold her, but, if 
suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can 
catch her again. Men who realize the impor¬ 
tance of time and the shortness of life seize 
opportunity by the forelock and shake the 
jewels from her garments. If she is not thus 
seized she passes on with flying feet and sunlit 
brow into the future, closing the gates of fortune 
behind her. She comes out of the realm of 
silence and mystery, she sweeps like a flame 
of light under the firmament, and is gone, and 
oaks of power and grandeur must sleep in the 
acorn till she returns. If Ambition can rise on 
sinews of steel and grasp her, if Industry can 
throw out the brawny hand and stop her, or 
if Genius can rise on fiery wing and seize her, 
man is enriched, and, in return, is enabled to 
enrich the world. 


OPPORTUNITY. 


131 

A Scottish writer of wide fame, in describing 
opportunity as rushing hitherward, swift and 
terrible, clothed with lightning, like a courser 
of the gods from the opposite side of the 
horizon, inquires if we dare clutch him. The 
question asked here indicates the necessity not 
only of an active mind, but of a courageous 
heart, in order to clutch opportunity and drive 
him, with shoes of embellished steel and eyes 
of penetrating fire, in our chariot. The indi¬ 
vidual of sluggish step and timid soul has no 
eye to see him, nor hand to grasp him, as 
he comes clothed in awful power, leaping over 
the bolted gates of enterprise and progress 
with terrible swiftness. To confront him re¬ 
quires a man of heroic heart and vigorous 
grasp, who is alive to important occasions. 

We remember the thrilling effect of De 
Quincey’s eloquent story of Csesar, who, with 
a party of his soldiers, had marched through a 
dark and stormy night, and had reached the 
banks of the Rubicon, in the gray and un¬ 
certain light of the morning. A Phantom 
arose, and, seizing a trumpet from one of the 
musicians, blew upon it a blast of superhuman 
strength, plunged into the astonished river, 
passed to the opposite bank, and disappeared 
in the dusky twilight of the dawn. Oppor- 


132 A P PLICA TION A ND A CHIE YEMEN T. 

tunity had been trumpeted forward on the 
horizon by the Phantom, when it was seized 
by the strong hand of Caesar, who exclaimed : 
“It is finished; the die is cast”; and then, it 
is said, he crossed, with impetuosity, the Rubi¬ 
con, raised the banner of revolt in Italy, shook 
down the pillars of the republic, and on its 
ruins erected an empire that was to last fifteen 
hundred years. 

Who seeks, and will not take, when once’t is offered, 

Shall never find it more. 

Shakespeare. 

The noted leaders in all sublime movements 
are characterized by such decision and impetu¬ 
osity. They are bent upon a great purpose, 
they know a great occasion, they move with an 
amazing celerity, and they strike with a crush¬ 
ing energy, as witnessed in the operations of 
Cromwell and Napoleon. Those who have 
been lifted to the highest position, and gar¬ 
landed with the greatest renown, swaying the 
multitude and stamping the heated period with 
their genius or virtue, have embraced the op¬ 
portunity, and flamed up the heights of power 
and distinction. We need only to open history 
to learn that the most illustrious characters 
have studied with intensity, and acted with 


OPPORTUNITY. 


133 


impetuosity, shooting through the heavens of 
greatness and celebrity. 

Many who are distinguished were once yoked 
to misfortune. They had to contend with pov¬ 
erty and temptation, and endure affliction and 
sorrow. They had their anxieties and disap¬ 
pointments, their troubled sea and tempestuous 
sky ; and, schooled in the black storms of Fate, 
they became successful mariners on the great 
deep of Life. Though unacquainted with the 
subtleties of the Schoolmen, and of the retreats 
of the Academy, they possessed brilliant talent, 
translucent genius, heroic courage, and con¬ 
quering perseverance, striking fire out of their 
own flints to light their own lamps. They are 
the stars that fling the obstructing clouds from 
their silvery wheels, smiting the darkness with 
their effulgence, taking their places in the 
firmament, and flashing their inspiring light 
to all nations and all time. 

From the barbers came Arkwright, the in¬ 
ventor of the spinning-jenny; and Turner, the 
most renowned of landscape painters. From 
the farmers came Burns, the poet; and Cook, 
the navigator—men who gave to the garments 
of labor a shining lustre. The carpenters can 
claim Hunter, the physiologist; Inigo Jones, 
the architect ; and Opie and Romney, who, by 


134 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

their thought and brush, helped to advance 
painting. The masons and bricklayers can 
boast of Miller, the geologist ; Cunningham, 
the writer and sculptor; and rare Ben Jonson, 
the scholar and poet, who linked arms with 
Shakespeare, and started to walk down the 
centuries. From the loom we have Foster 
the theologian, and Wilson the ornithologist; 
from the press we have Franklin the philoso¬ 
pher and statesman, and Greeley the editor 
and philanthropist ; while from the butcher’s 
shop came such men as Akenside and Cardinal 
Wolsey. 

These were once without position and in¬ 
fluence, but, by improving the opportunity, 
they soon gained both. They struggled with 
might and soul, harnessed the hour which 
came with a stimulant for action, and drove 
it on the road of success. Through trials and 
difficulties they made their way, rising a step 
at a time, till the door in the building of honor 
swung open, and they entered. And thus men 
in different occupations, by talent and industry, 
overcome adverse circumstances and rise to 
honorable positions, contributing to society out 
of their overflowing treasuries. Really great 
men have thus toiled and sacrificed ; and with 
brave heart and peering intellect have embraced 


OPPORTUNITY. 


135 


the opportunity, and risen to be companions 
for the immortals, like Tasso and Mozart, like 
Luther and Columbus, like Montaigne and 
Mendelssohn. 

Most of our great men have come up from 
the lower places in society, like great oaks 
from the unseen undergrowth. After they 
have exhibited their best thought in their pur¬ 
suits, they have ripened and shimmered in 
their autumnal glory. They have risen to give 
justice and majesty to law, beauty and gran¬ 
deur to art, impulse and energy to reform, and 
sublimity and power to eloquence. They have 
risen when Machinery needed a constructor 
and Government a diplomatist, when Discovery 
demanded a leader and Religion an orator. 
They have risen with splendid ability and im¬ 
pressive character, and before their imperial 
presence Ignorance and Despotism, Supersti¬ 
tion and Cruelty, with their undisguised fe¬ 
rocity, have slunk away. 

There is an hour in each man’s life appointed 
To make his happiness, if then he seize it. 

Beaumont and Fletcher. 

Those who apprehend the conditions gener¬ 
ally keep their sails spread. They never allow 
the window of opportunity to be curtained. 


136 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

They spear the fish as soon as he shows his 
form. They plant the seed when the furrow is 
opened and the season is beckoning. They 
allow no opportunity for acquisition and use¬ 
fulness to pass unimproved. David Ricardo, 
the wealthy banker, became noted for his 
knowledge of political economy. Elihu Bur- 
ritt, the sturdy blacksmith, became distin¬ 
guished as a scholar and linguist. Many who 
have become most prominent in literature and 
science have been most faithful in other voca¬ 
tions. We see this in the careers and triumphs 
of such men as Chaucer and Spencer, Herschel 
and Ferguson, Grote and Mill. Out from the 
quarry comes the marble ; it takes shape from 
the hands of the sculptor, then from the ped¬ 
estal it speaks with silent eloquence. 

A man may be dowered with great gifts, but 
without earnest application he cannot reach 
the attainable. Industry is needed to develop 
the resources of talent and genius, and give 
their possessor a widening influence. See this 
exemplified in the careers of such men as 
Brougham the eminent parliamentarian, and 
Poussin, the celebrated painter. Think of the 
industry of Charles Lamb, with his sunny dis¬ 
position and exuberant nature, and of Hugh 
Miller, with his vigorous intellect and stalwart 


OPPORTUNITY. 


*3 7 


energy. Think of the industry of Gibbon, 
whose classic pages have been admired by the 
scholar and rhetorician, and of Prescott, whose 
elegant periods have kindled the reader into 
enthusiasm. Think of the industry of the 
author of “ Lycidas,” with all his greatness and 
majesty, never flagging in his pursuits; and of 
the author of “ Waverley,” with all his popular¬ 
ity and renown, never halting in his labors. 

Dickens was an incessant worker through 
long years, and when he swung to the number 
of fifty-eight on the mortal scale, and the shad¬ 
ows of Dissolution gathered upon the walls of 
his chamber, and his windows were rattled by a 
strong wind blowing from the land beyond the 
Sepulchre, he was at work still. 

Labor has had no greater advocates than 
Joshua Reynolds and Michael Angelo, who, 
with their rare gifts strengthened their advo¬ 
cacy by their action. In fact, the most cele¬ 
brated men have been the most industrious 
men, such as Morse in telegraphy and Hart in 
painting, as Franklin in philosophy and diplo¬ 
macy, and Humboldt in science and discovery. 
No one can read the life of Chatham or of 
Richelieu without being impressed with their 
marvellous energies as well as their transcen¬ 
dent abilities, flashing like great suns through 


138 A PPLICA TION A ND A CH 1 E YEMEN T. 

political firmaments, and swaying constellated 
cabinets by their potent thought. There is no 
grander writing than what is found in Carlyle’s 
account of the closing of Mirabeau’s career, 
with all the tragic color and martial grandeur 
of the epic, in which he describes the mighty 
labors of this heroic leader who, amid tumult 
and anarchy, climbed to the mountain-tops of 
victory and glory after a fearful struggle of 
forty years. 

Before men of courage and energy the obsta¬ 
cles to success are removed. The snow-bank 
with its chilling influence keeps back the fra¬ 
grant clover. The sun throws its shining 
forces against it, and, unable to withstand the 
attack, it begins a reluctant retreat. Where 
the snow-bank had lain the grass turns green ; 
it grows beautiful and luxuriant, and soon it 
invites the mower. And so faithful service in 
any noble calling which tends to promote the 
interests of society will have, in the ultimate, 
a telling effect upon mankind. Its thoughts 
and deeds, like the shining arrows of the sun, 
will strike the snow-bank of oppression and 
intolerance, and it will gradually retreat, and 
in its place will come the spontaneous flowerets 
of gratitude and reverence. When the names 
of Wickliffe the reformer, and Van Helmont 


OPPORTUNITY. 


I 39 


the chemist, Harvey the physiologist, and La¬ 
fayette the patriot, are mentioned now, abuse 
gives place to eulogy. Such men fill the office 
of benefactors, and though they may have 
been opposed and vilified in their generation, 
gratitude, with a revolution of the wheel of 
time, honors their memory. 

The people are naturally conservative. On 
this account the good of the past is retained, 
but the good of the future is for a long time 
withheld. They allow the spiders of custom 
to spin the webs of caution in the window of 
opportunity. They are as oblivious to an op¬ 
portunity which beckons an event, as the bats 
are to the movements of Venus and Mercury, 
or the oscillations of Neptune and Jupiter. 
They would stand and guard the hay-stack in 
the meadow after it has lost much of its sweet¬ 
ness through the winter, instead of whetting 
the scythe and turning the swathe in the brood¬ 
ing of summer. 

But man needs rest as well as work, in order 
to succeed. He needs recreation as well as 
application, in order to achieve. Burton and 
Saville both advise seasons of relaxation and 
diversion as being necessary for the exertion of 
greater effort in the chosen vocation. The 
wise man improves the opportunity for recrea- 


140 APPLICATION' AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tion and amusement, as well as for application 
and attainment. Such an hour pours wine 
among the plodding faculties, opens the flow¬ 
ers which have been closed by lingering shad¬ 
ows, and puts luminous stars in troubled skies. 

We must unbend the bow if we would have 
it retain its strength and throw the arrow with 
lightning swiftness. We must give rest to the 
field if we would have the wheat bending be¬ 
fore the wind, or the corn gleaming from the 
husk. Men of the brightest talent and the 
greatest industry, moving their period by the 
potency of their labors and the grandeur of 
their triumphs, have taken off the soiled gar¬ 
ments of toil, and entered the charming circle 
of recreation, to come forth again with renewed 
vigor. 

To take good care of the locomotive, you 
must oil its machinery. This will prevent fric¬ 
tion and keep the wheels moving with power. 
Man needs the oil of relaxation and diversion 
among the wheels of his ambition and energy. 
There is a provision in the nature of man for 
amusement, and amusement is the grindstone 
which sharpens his tools. The young will send 
up their kites and roll their hoops, however 
much you may reprimand or moralize. If a 
fire must be built, it is better to tolerate a 


OPPORTUNITY. 


141 

chimney than to have the house filled with 
smoke. 

Men are only boys of a larger stature, and 
when they lose their youthful nature they lose 
their richest nature, they lose what is hopeful 
and has springs of progress. The best part of 
the man is the boy he carries in his heart, link¬ 
ing him again with youthful experiences, bend¬ 
ing over him the rainbow of promise, and 
giving him not only the eye to see, but the 
hand to clutch opportunity. It was the fancy 
and enterprise of the boy that moved Dryden 
when nearly seventy, to drop from the mint of 
genius some of his best coin. It was the vigor 
and fancy of the boy that moved Bryant, when 
nearly eighty, to write his admirable poem on 
“ The Flood of Tears.” It was the poetry and 
ambition of the boy which inspired Titian, 
when over eighty, to give to the world his 
magnificent picture of “The Martyrdom of St. 
Lawrence.” 

The age is beneficent in the gift of oppor¬ 
tunity. In fact opportunity sweeps through all 
the manifold departments of human activity. 
Let man with courageous heart and outstretched 
hand seize her by the forelock. She has the 
keys to those unopened cabinets of knowledge 
and goodness, which must give character to the 


142 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT ,. 

period. When she is seized the keys are drop¬ 
ped, and man opens the drawers and gathers 
the treasures, and by a law which is universal in 
nature he has to share with society. 

The man who procrastinates is ever strug¬ 
gling with misfortunes, is the observation of 
Hesiod. Aisi S' ap/3o\i8pyo? av?}p arpdi 
naXaisi. Gregory Nazianzen exclaims that we 
should seize opportunity, for as she comes we 
may catch her, but when she is passed it is vain 
to seek her. When she is seized, with excited 
controversy, the old is removed and the new is 
established, and Toleration opens the gate for 
Innovation to pass in and out. 

Then antiquated notions and theories are 
overturned, venerable beliefs and customs are 
abandoned, and the people strike great lines of 
activity and progress. The false is contrasted 
with the true, ignorance and tyranny are com¬ 
pared with knowledge and freedom, and the 
million begin to appreciate and understand. A 
mighty current of feeling and resolution sets in 
on the soul, and the land is aroused with a far- 
sweeping commotion. There is a change in the 
atmosphere of public opinion ; the great deep 
of life is fretted and tossed, and the black ships 
of Ignorance and Cruelty shake their spars, 
and go down! 


OPPORTUNITY. 


143 


Let no one be alarmed or agitated when an 
invention or a discovery is trumpeted through 
the door of opportunity into the realm of 
humanity. Remember it is by successive dif¬ 
ferentiations that we pass from the plant to the 
tree, from the canoe to the steamship, from 
the tea-kettle to the locomotive, from the cabin 
to the palace. We must pass from the old 
to the new, from the homogeneous to the 
heterogeneous, then we obey the law of prog¬ 
ress, and the sky of promise drops its blessings. 
And in all advancement there must of neces¬ 
sity be innovation and collision, producing a 
change of opinions and sentiments. 

The doctrines and theories which have been 
rooted in the world’s heart for centuries are 
extirpated, and men learn that the change is 
not a calamity but a blessing. When the farm¬ 
er fells the tree in the forest the squirrel, 
astounded and disconcerted, may imagine the 
universe is falling into pieces. The fact is the 
farmer is only intending to make rails which 
will inclose the field, where he will plow and 
plant, and gather a harvest of which the squir¬ 
rel may have a part. The movements of the 
glaciers were tremendous and appalling; it 
seemed as though nature was going back into 
chaos on wheels of terrific thunder ; but instead 


144 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

of this we find the rocks crushed and granu¬ 
lated ; washed down from the mountains into 
the valleys, and converted into rich soil, out of 
which the corn leaps, and shakes its green 
blades in the sun. 

Think of our advantages and opportunities. 
Every home has its newspapers and periodicals. 
Then we have public libraries, where distin¬ 
guished authors display their rare gifts in those 
esteemed productions which grow luminous and 
attractive with the flight of years. We have 
public galleries, where the celebrated masters 
exhibit their genius and power in their immor¬ 
tal creations, and move the heart. We have 
also academies of science where the mind may 
grasp the mysteries and forces of creation ; and 
academies of music, where the soul may enjoy 
the waves of melody and harmony. With a 
period so opulent in learning, and so beneficent 
in opportunity, man, however humble in condi¬ 
tion, should summon a noble courage, and em¬ 
brace the opportunity to rise. 

Our age is one of intense activity and lively 
discovery. Our world is one of beauty and plen¬ 
ty, filled with kindly suggestions and accom¬ 
modating agents. What opportunities and in¬ 
centives for the brain and hand to accomplish 
something noble and useful. Wilkie, linked 




OPPORTUNITY. 


145 


with poverty, used a burnt stick for his pencil, 
and a barn-door for his canvas, and thus began 
his career as a painter. Gifford, apprenticed to 
a cobbler, succeeded in solving problems on 
pieces of leather, and thus began his triumphs 
as a mathematician. Galvani sees the twitching 
of the limb of a frog, and he goes forth with his 
wonderful experiments which lead to astonish¬ 
ing results in electricity. Cuvier beholds a 
cuttle-fish lying in the sand on the shore, and 
he at once has a subject for dissection and 
study, and it points to his important discoveries 
in palaeontology. 

The suggestions which lead to acquisition are 
acted upon by the sagacious and discerning, 
and men like Faraday in the apothecary shop, 
and Rembrandt in the creaking mill, are quick 
to seize the opportunity. With the mind and 
heart of such men open to every force and 
beauty of Nature and Science, the occasion is 
embraced to develop the life and glorify the 
age. 

Zeal and duty are not slow ; 

But on occasion’s forelock watchful wait. 

Milton. 

Men of insight and sagacity have always 
heard these voices and acted upon these sug¬ 
gestions. Pythagoras listened to the stirring 
10 


146 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT, 

ring of the anvil, and was moved to invent the 
harmonic scale. Galileo watched the swing of 
the lamp in the cathedral, and was enabled 
from its oscillations to discover the office of the 
pendulum. It was from the numerous obser¬ 
vations of Tycho that Kepler grasped the three 
great laws upon which is founded the modern 
theory of astronomy. The world moves on 
the road of advancement and triumph, as men 
are quick to see and hear the hidden secrets in 
the forces and beauties, the agents and wonders 
which sleep around us. 

Pliny speaks of some shipwrecked mariners 
of Phoenicia, whose storm-tossed vessel was 
loaded with fossil alkali. They kindled a fire 
on the sand to prepare their repast, and placed 
their cooking utensils upon pieces of the sub¬ 
stance with which their battered vessel was 
freighted. The sand, by the agency of the 
caloric and its union with the alkali, became 
vitrified, and glass with its many uses found its 
origin. From the fire on the sand we trace the 
utilities and beauties of glass through the hands 
of the Phoenicians and Egyptians, the Romans 
and Venetians. In plates and cups, in vessels 
and windows, how brilliant and transparent it 
is, and how it ministers to domestic comfort 
and aesthetic pleasure. Look at the pictured 


OPPORTUNITY. 


14 7 


windows of the immense cathedrals, and mark 
how the colors are incorporated by fusion never 
to be tarnished nor obliterated. Talk with 
Albert Durer and Lucas of Leyden, and they 
will tell you the secret of the glory which 
flashes from the cathedral windows of Rome 
and Paris, of Milan and London. 

The men of power and distinction are those 
who spring through the door of opportunity. 
They do not wait to be led through, but they 
go with hurrying feet and conquering brain. 
This was illustrated by Lord Erskine, who 
volunteered, when a young man, to conduct 
the case of a prominent sea captain before Lord 
Mansfield. He had roamed the ocean as a 
sailor, and was full of daring adventure ; and, 
adopting the legal profession, with his brilliant 
talents he seized the auspicious moment in 
which to rise. He was a young man of splen¬ 
did ability but of extreme poverty, without 
reputation or position, with a family living on 
the borders of hardship and distress. Captain 
Bailie, the Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich 
Hospital, had discovered, it is said, enormous 
abuses in the management of that institution, 
and had charged them on Sandwich, First Lord 
of the Admiralty. For this he was prosecuted 
for libel, and Erskine conducted the case for the 


148 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


defendant, in Westminster Hall, against four 
of the ablest lawyers in the English realm. 

The people gathered. The interest in the 
trial was far-reaching. The excitement of the 
occasion was alarming. The noted and wealthy 
of London were present ; and while they gazed 
and listened, Erskine, the intellectual athlete, 
sprang into the excited arena. The efforts of 
his opponents were gigantic, but without intim¬ 
idation he came to his work ; he broke their 
arguments into fragments with the hammer of 
logic, and with one of the grandest efforts ever 
made in forensic eloquence he rose in the light 
of thrilling victory. His star shot from the 
horizon to the zenith ; his poverty gave place 
to affluence ; and at a later period in life, when 
asked by his friends about the secret of that 
magnificent effort, he replied that when he rose 
to speak he thought one of his children plucked 
him by the robe and said : “ Now, father , is the 
time to get us bread." 

Thus do men rise from penury and seclusion, 
and become prominent and influential in various 
callings. We see them in the business arena, as 
well as in the professional circles, honored and es¬ 
teemed for their labors and triumphs. They are 
men of culture and of probity ; men of great aims 
and high-born principles ; men who are contrib- 


OPPORTUNITY. 


149 


uting to the advancement of art and literature, 
law and education, like Astor and Girard, Cor¬ 
coran and Cornell, George Peabody and Peter 
Cooper. We find not only some of our truest 
men, but our ablest men in the dominion of 
traffic, pushing business interests beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, and scarcely halting at the 
sea. They have the enterprise of the Phoeni¬ 
cian, and the stalwart energy of the Roman, 
and up from the realm of dust and wheels comes 
that robust industry which gives celerity to the 
movements of thought, and success to all great 
work of the highest character. 

When the opportunity is neglected, then 
mockery and disappointment come to trouble 
the heart. The hour is unimproved, the scheme 
is defeated, and the star of hope is plucked from 
the firmament. Then we behold apathy and 
indifference taking the place of energy and am¬ 
bition, with the heart sinking under the weight 
of sorrow and dejection. Then life grows dull 
and insipid, and the cup of gladness and encour¬ 
agement becomes empty and broken. Then 
the world loses its charm, society its attraction 
and existence its exhilaration, with no light 
about the feet. Darkness settles over the soul, 
chilling its powers, and men drop on the side of 
the mountain before pressing its summit. 


150 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

It is related in an Eastern story that Prince 
Bohman attempted to climb an enchanted 
mountain to possess certain objects of value 
and interest upon its apex. In this attempt 
certain voices, from unknown places, called to 
him in the most terrifying language to return, 
and he stopped and with fear looked back, and, 
with his horse, was converted into stone. Prince 
Perviz, his ardent brother, being ambitious and 
enterprising, also made the same attempt, but 
these fearful voices from undiscovered recesses 
intimidated and frightened him, and he halted 
and looked back, and with his horse was chang¬ 
ed into stone. 

The Princess Perizade, the heroic sister of 
these unfortunate brothers, resolved to reach 
the crest of this enchanted mountain, and so 
with brave heart and invincible courage she 
pressed her steed and passed by these frightful 
voices with an unyielding determination, never 
halting nor looking back, till she gained the 
commanding summit. Here in obedience to 
an order she filled a pitcher with golden water 
and sprinkled it upon the stones which lay thick 
upon the side of this conjured mountain, and 
from every stone a horse and rider leaped into 
being, and became a living army, with bugles 
sounding and banners waving. And so in climb- 


OPPORTUNITY. 


151 

mg the towering mountain of knowledge and 
morality, in this active period, we only need to 
sprinkle the golden water of truth and love 
upon the great host that have fallen by the way, 
so they may rise from their stony indifference, 
and become the all-conquering army of God ! 

Let us remember the ancient proverb, and 
with living interest, strike while the iron is hot. 
The motto of the French is, when a fox is 
asleep nothing falls into his mouth: Au re~ 
nard endormi rien ne chut en la gueule. To-day 
with its opportunities is ours, to-morrow with 
its uncertainties swings behind the vail. The 
sand runs, the clock strikes, the sun moves, 
the shadow lengthens, the darkness thickens, 
the avenue closes. The hair turns white about 
the temple, the home grows lonely and deso¬ 
late, the moss gathers upon the doorstep and 
the tombstone, the wave of oblivion sweeps 
over the altar and the fireside, and another gen¬ 
eration throngs the planet. 

Amid these changes there comes the oppor¬ 
tunity for man to gather something beautiful 
and valuable from the various sources which 
call for the comprehensive brain and the indus¬ 
trious hand. He can pluck it from the furrow, 
shake it out of the orchard, pick it from the 
mines, fish it out of the streams, plane it out of 


152 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


lumber, spin it out of cotton, hammer it out of 
iron, gather it from the realms of art and law, 
reap it from the fields of science and invention, 
pluck it from the beautiful gardens of literature 
and morality, seek it in the illuminated tem¬ 
ples of knowledge and religion, and be a helper 
of the Humanity that is sheltered and watched 
over by that Being who gives the world in 
measured supplies the shower and the sun 
shine, and who in the night-time of trouble and 
adversity is the Star of Hope, crossing the 
great line of silence and darkness with a trail¬ 
ing mantle of silver, and heralding the approach 
of morning- 


HONOR. 

The crown is the badge of eminent distinc¬ 
tion. It is the symbol of regal authority. It 
has been the object of covetous desire and 
clutching ambition ever since the institution of 
government. Continents have been shaken 
and kingdoms convulsed by the conflict waged 
for its possession. 

But no crown of metallic splendor compares 
with the crown of untarnished honor. By this 
crown is meant the purity and veracity which 
dwell in the soul. It represents nobleness and 
magnanimity, and as a consequence it elicits 
admiration and esteem. 

Honor likewise represents probity and chiv¬ 
alry. In the realm of the soul it is the ex¬ 
ponent of manly virtues and high-born qualities. 
With men of sterling principle and lofty char¬ 
acter it is the crowning glory. It nestles in the 
heart of the peasant as well as in the heart of 
the monarch ; and it often shines with a greater 
lustre in the ranks of toil and poverty than 
in the places of power and distinction. It 


153 


154 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

is the link which attaches the individual to 
what is veracious and noble, magnanimous 
and chivalrous, when meanness and sycophancy, 
falsehood and poltroonery come in various 
shapes with deceiving masks. It is the light¬ 
house throwing its bright rays upon troubled 
waters, that the vessel driven by tempest and 
wrenched by billows may come safely into port 
and drop her anchor. 

Honor will always be appreciated and es¬ 
teemed. It is the magnet which attracts. It 
is the gold which sparkles and pleases on the 
counter of exchange value. It is the diamond 
which has the constant glow of an imbedded 
fire; and it is quickly recognized and properly 
estimated by the observing and discriminating. 

Men in various circumstances and amid 
various surroundings not only esteem but 
venerate honor. It is a principle or a virtue 
that all classes and orders take pride in pos¬ 
sessing and exhibiting. It is so intimately 
related to what is noble, so firmly attached 
to what is manly, that it would be difficult to 
find a person who would acknowledge that he 
was destitute of honor. It is the stone of bind¬ 
ing energy in the arch of upright character. 

When the individual drops his honor, he 
drops his manhood. When the keystone is 


HONOR. 


155 


removed, the bridge crumbles into ruin. When 
the tree has been girdled, the symptoms of de¬ 
cay are witnessed in the branches. When the 
river has been tapped, the channel once threaded 
by steamers and lined with factories grows 
empty and ragged. Honor is the uniting link 
or binding force among the constituent facul¬ 
ties of the mind. When it is displaced there 
is no equilibrium among the esteemed qualities 
of the soul. Then friction and vexation wear 
away the pivots of honesty and integrity. 
Then man crumbles into decay and resembles 
a temple that has been smitten and deserted. 

Honor is the cement which holds the building 
of virtue together.' It is the attractive energy 
which keeps probity and magnanimity from 
dropping away. It is the monarch that rules 
the soul, filling it with order and decorum. All 
that is noble and generous in life is knitted up 
with honor. It is the golden-thread which runs 
through the granite shaft of character. Says 
the foremost dramatist : 

Mine honor is my life ; both grow in one ; 

Take honor from me, and my life is done. 

It is related that anciently the Romans wor¬ 
shipped Virtue and Honor as gods, and that 
they built two temples which were so seated 


156 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

that none could enter the temple of Honor 
without passing through the temple of Virtue. 
Surely such impressions in relation to such 
principles must have been conducive to in¬ 
tegrity and morality, as witnessed in a later 
period in the characters of such men as Pliny 
the Elder and Scipio the Younger, and in the 
purity and goodness of Marcus Aurelius. 

Man can have no reputation nor influence 
that is enduring without honor. He may have 
brilliant talent and liberal scholarship, and 
dazzle and attract for a time. But having no 
honor his influence will be narrowed, and the 
door of respect will be closed by the hand of 
justice. His morning may be sunny and beauti¬ 
ful, but his evening will be cloudy and tempestu¬ 
ous. But with honor he will have character and 
sovereignty; his word will be as good as his 
bond, and his name will win its way like the 
autograph of a monarch. He will find the 
circle of his supremacy and usefulness being 
enlarged, and men of wisdom and purity filling 
the highest places in society showing him re¬ 
spect. 

This respect to honor is witnessed not only 
in the present, but in the periods of the past, 
where men have had exalted virtue and irre¬ 
proachable character. It is stated that Xenoc- 


HONOR. 


15 7 


rates was a man of so much veracity and fidelity 
that the Athenians allowed him the privilege of 
giving his evidence without the obligation. It 
is related that Fabricius was a man of so much 
virtue and honesty that a Roman might as well 
attempt to turn the sun out of its course, as to 
bring him to commit a base deed, or do a dis¬ 
honest action. 

Life without love can be borne, but life without honor never. 

• Green. 

Honor is necessary in all branches of indus¬ 
try, whether it be in writing books or handling 
tools, in dealing behind the counter or in speak¬ 
ing from the rostrum. It does not belong to 
any particular vocation ; it cannot be limited to 
any particular calling; it goes with the beat of 
the pulse in the market and in the forum. We 
see it under the peasant’s garb as under the 
monarch’s crown. We find it in the cottage as 
in the palace ; the jewel that sparkles in the 
crown of imperial virtue and sovereign man¬ 
hood. In the ceaseless turmoil of human in¬ 
dustry we witness its importance and estimate 
its value. We find it burning in the lamp of 
the miner and in the lamp of the philosopher, 
and mingling in the thoughts and deeds of the 
most humble and the most exalted. 


158 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

And so honor is found in all grades of society 
and in all walks of industry, and it becomes 
him who holds the plow and him who rules the 
state. Outside of respectable employment it 
has no dominance nor authority; it builds no 
kingdom and waves no sceptre. Those who 
have risen from humble places by the great¬ 
ness of the mind or the cunning of the hand, 
with honor woven with the subtle fibres of the 
moral nature, ought to be proud of the difficul¬ 
ties they have surmounted, as well as the pan¬ 
egyrics they have received. 

We see honor in the life of Andrew Marvell. 
He was a man of unbending rectitude and un¬ 
impeachable character, gaining the confidence 
and esteem of men like Cromwell and Milton. 
Without fortune or position he was chosen to 
represent his town in Parliament on account of 
his steady adhesion to equitable government. 
And there he rose to be eminent and influential, 
not by commanding talent as a speaker or a de¬ 
bater, but by his high sense of honor and his 
unwavering devotion to principle. He was so 
pure and just, so honorable and unsullied in his 
parliamentary career, that he received the ad¬ 
miration and confidence of his constituency. 
The story of the visit of Danby, the Lord 
Treasurer, to the humble lodgings of Marvell, 


HONOR . 


159 


the plain commoner, indicates his unyielding 
integrity as well as his republican simplicity. 
Here was an incorruptible representative, an 
unselfish patriot, and a true man. 

We witness the value and greatness of honor 
in an eminent degree when we compare the 
career of Andrew Marvell with the career of 
Benedict Arnold. The latter had enticing 
manner and unquestioned ability, and he gained 
the favor and respect of his country. He was 
promoted to a high place in the American 
army when it was contending for indepen¬ 
dence, and he had the esteem and reliance of 
men like Washington and Lafayette. It was 
a time freighted with weighty concerns, and 
needed insuperable courage and unswerving 
fidelity ; for there were at stake principles and 
immunities of overwhelming magnitude. But 
lacking the controlling dominance of honor 
this officer, who had the implicit confidence 
of the soldiers, gambled with cupidity and 
treason. He finally surrendered to the pow¬ 
erful encroachments of envy, and with per¬ 
turbed faculties and in the face of the most 
solemn obligations, he betrayed his country. 
Had honor been the presiding genius in the 
court of the soul, he might have been num¬ 
bered with the disinterested patriots who suf- 


l6o APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

fered and endured, eulogized with the strenuous 
defenders of justice and liberty, and left a bright 
name and a stimulating example to the world. 

A man who has honor is clothed in armor. 
He will be invulnerable to the arrows of malig¬ 
nity and defamation. He may be assailed, but 
cannot be overcome ; he may be attacked, but 
cannot be conquered. He lives in that realm 
where no dart of calumny or detraction can 
reach, no word of aspersion or disparagement 
can stain. He can be no traitor to justice, no 
deserter of freedom, for he combines moral 
courage with moral rectitude. He cannot be 
swayed from honesty and virtue by a bribe or 
a threat. He is insinewed with righteous 
energy, he is arrayed in righteous panoply, 
and he is a formidable champion in the bitter 
campaign. He stands by the gun and holds 
the field. He believes in liberty and humanity, 
and his duty in relation to them is not only 
incumbent but imperative ; and when it is re¬ 
garded and performed man rises a patriot like 
Leonidas or Miltiades, a hero like Kossuth or 
Garibaldi, a leader like Coligni or Gambetta, 
a reformer like John Bright or Charles Sumner. 

Then man rises above ignoble ambition and 
paltry seeking. He rises above despicable 
meanness and selfish aggrandizement. In faith- 


HONOR . 


161 


ful effort and thrilling exploit for the advance¬ 
ment and happiness of the burdened and 
unfortunate, there is a complete vindication of 
his nobility and magnanimity. What cares he 
for unblushing scurrility and unfettered mem 
dacity when weighty measures and momentous 
principles are calling for eloquent advocates and 
heroic defenders. Better lie dead on the field 
with the armor pierced and broken, than to live 
a life of selfishness and cupidity, with Dishonor 
plucking at your robe and Perfidy sitting above 
your brow. Better lie dead on the field in the 
character of a nobleman, than to live in the 
court in the character of a poltroon, though you 
may be flattered by sycophants and eulogized 
by demagogues. 

If I lose mine honor ; 

I lose myself ; better I were not yours, 

Than yours so branchless. 

Shakespeare. 

So have felt honored patriots, most noble and 
virtuous, like Hampden and Warren, who went 
down to death under the smoke of battle; and 
heroic martyrs like Barneveldt, the incorrupti¬ 
ble statesman, and Robert Emmet, the eloquent 
defender of his burdened country. 

We do not always realize the swaying influ¬ 
ence of a noble performance. The triumphs of 


162 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Handel kindled the enthusiasm of Haydn, and 
called forth the admiration of Scarlatti. The 
ideality of Raphael was quickened, and the 
imagination of Buonarroti was fired, by the 
achievements of Da Vinci. The genius of 
Cherubini and Schubert was recognized and 
lauded by Beethoven. Napoleon gave fire 
wings to the impetuous courage of Lannes and 
Massena. Sheridan with his flaming eloquence 
consumed indifference and unconcern, and 
fired the English Parliament. Bourdaloue 
with his irresistible oratory moved like a whirl-, 
wind upon his astonished listeners in the French 
court. It is said that Northcote, when a youth, 
was so impressed with the greatness of Rey¬ 
nolds that he pushed through a crowd, on a 
certain occasion, to touch the coat of this illus¬ 
trious painter. And it is known that one of 
the greatest writers in England became so 
aroused in reading of the eloquence of White- 
field that he walked twenty miles to hear this 
celebrated preacher. 

As the triumphs of genius thus move and 
attract, so the examples of honor thrill and 
arouse. They summon the spirit of chivalry, 
they excite the spirit of emulation. The heart 
is thronged with noble feelings, seeking expres¬ 
sion and liberty in noble actions. Then perfidy 


HONOR, 


163 


and dishonor are extirpated, and generosity 
and benevolence are cultivated. What is asso¬ 
ciated with baseness and turpitude is eradi¬ 
cated, and what is related to nobility and 
rectitude is welcomed. Then as a result there 
is the exhibition of greater virtue and the un¬ 
folding of loftier character. The wine of honor 
fills the goblet of emulation. 

In the familiar story of the enduring friend¬ 
ship of Damon and Pythias we have the blos¬ 
som and the fragrance of honor. Pythias is 
condemned to death through the sway of 
tyranny, and desiring to visit his family before 
this tragic event, Damon takes his place in the 
prison, that he may go and exchange the last 
word of tender affection. Pythias is solicited 
in the most beseeching manner to remain, but 
closes his heart against the solicitation ; while 
Damon is appealed to in the most eloquent 
language to make his escape, but closes his 
breast against the appeal. They were steadfast 
and unyielding in their friendship, noble and 
magnanimous in their characters, and such was 
the regality of their virtue and the potency of 
their spirit that Dionysius was swept down 
from the throne in Sicily, offering pardon to 
the accused in the presence of the multitude. 
How these disciples of Pythagoras, with their 


164 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


unbending integrity and their uncooling friend¬ 
ship, walk down the centuries together, and in¬ 
spire the nations with their honor and fidelity. 

A man may be necessitated to struggle against 
hardships and difficulties. But if he have a high 
sense of honor, applying his energies, and ful¬ 
filling his engagements, a gratifying success will 
reward his efforts. He will gain the confidence 
and approbation of those whom he serves, and 
he will find the gate of respect and emolument 
opening at his approach. He may be opposed 
and persecuted, but he will be invincible. He 
may be visited by animosity and aspersion, but 
he will be unharmed. He who has honor in 
every fibre of his being, honor in his feelings 
and sentiments, with a conscience that is un¬ 
fettered, and a character that is unblemished, 
will force respect and esteem and be a king in 
the world. 

Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit, 

For ’t is a throne where honor may be crowned. 

Shakespeare. 

No position can be adorned without the 
principle of honor. It may be gained by un¬ 
scrupulous manoeuvring. It cannot be dignified 
without unspotted integrity. It demands more 
than ability and learning, more than cunning 


HONOR. 


165 


and sagacity. It demands purity and honesty, 
nobility and fidelity. Not capaciousness of 
intellect, but incorruptibility of character, is the 
urgent requirement. It is the indispensable 
requisite of him who exercises the functions 
of an office where supreme interests are at 
stake. 

Warren Hastings was a man of ability and 
sagacity. He had a laudable ambition and a 
noble purpose. When a student, by untiring 
application he showed astonishing proficiency 
in learning, as well as remarkable capacity 
of intellect. He determined to recover the 
possessions of his honorable ancestors, and 
he went forth with indomitable energy and in¬ 
defatigable industry. He displayed unusual 
ability, and, securing the admiration and con¬ 
fidence of distinguished personages, he was 
appointed Governor of India. He exhibited a 
vast deal of administrative capacity, but he be¬ 
came rapacious and tyrannical, and stripped 
wealthy nabobs of their dominions and treas¬ 
ures. And while he ruled with a strong hand 
for the protection and extension of the British 
Empire, he parted with his honor in many of 
the transactions which sullied his office. He 
was recalled and impeached, brought to trial, 
escaped conviction, and passed to the baronial 


1 66 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

mansion of his illustrious fathers, which he had 
recovered, and there died. 

Francis Bacon was distinguished for his pro¬ 
fundity and learning. He was esteemed for his 
great abilities and high attainments. He was 
foremost as a thinker and scholar, a jurist and 
philosopher. And yet with all his potency of 
intellect and accuracy of learning, we find him 
surrendering his independence and staining his 
integrity to gain place and power. By obsequi¬ 
ous attention and truculent subserviency to 
the titled and crowned, casting the flower of 
honor, withered in the heat of fierce ambition 
and strong desire, under his feet, he reached the 
office of Lord High Chancellor. He became 
selfish and sordid, guilty of mercenary dealing 
and flagrant ingratitude, disloyal and unmerci¬ 
ful to those who assisted in his elevation, drag¬ 
ging his ermine through the mire of corruption 
till he was arraigned, when he acknowledged 
his guilt and was passed from the Chancellor¬ 
ship to the Tower. His imprisonment was 
quickly ended ; his penalties were gradually re¬ 
mitted, when he turned his attention to the 
study of philosophy, made experiments and 
discoveries, and contributed writings upon ethics 
and many questions of scientific interest. 

Here were two men among the most eminent 


HONOR. 


167 


and illustrious in history. They had superior 
abilities and transcendent acquirements. They 
gave to the world unparalleled examples of in¬ 
dustry and accomplishment. But behold the 
misfortune that overtook them, and the dis¬ 
grace that mantled them, when they surren¬ 
dered their honor. In the evening of their 
lives we find Bacon devoting his talents to 
philosophy and Hastings giving his attention 
to literature, both striving for the respect and 
esteem of mankind. 

Disraeli remarks that the spirit that does not 
soar is destined perhaps to grovel. These are 
words of weighty import,' and they should 
cause a careful survey of the nature and dispo¬ 
sition. Those who have no desire for the pos¬ 
session of knowledge and virtue, no desire for 
success and influence in some honorable occu¬ 
pation or laudable pursuit, are sure to dwell 
with poverty and sleep with hardship. Those 
who have no ambition to labor and prosper in 
an honest calling, and to gain a good name by 
efficiency and faithfulness, are bound to strike 
the ground instead of reaching the firmament. 

When men have no inclination for cultivation 
and acquirement, no disposition for helping to 
promote learning and morality, they are en¬ 
tombed in selfishness and shrouded in darkness. 


1 68 APPLICA riON A ND A CHIP YEMEN T. 

With the instinct of honor plucked from the 
bosom, with the goblet of wisdom broken at 
the cistern, they linger in the region where 
virtue is robbed and manhood is lost. With 
no ambition to obtain what is honorable and 
praiseworthy, and to reach a plane of culture 
and power, they grovel in darkness and leave to 
the world no monument. 

Coleridge observes that, awakened by the 
cockcrow, the Christian pilgrim sets out in the 
morning twilight, while the truth is yet below 
the horizon. Here is a timely suggestion of 
the urgent necessity of being ready for action 
and victory. We are to strike the enemy be¬ 
fore he forms his line of battle. We must reef 
the sails before the storm unties his energies. 
We are to pluck the corn before the snow fills 
the cloud. We must grind the grist before the 
cold locks the stream. 

A great deal depends upon the apprehension 
and alacrity of the individual in regard to the 
success that is to reward his labors. He must 
be vigilant and faithful, for his destiny is de¬ 
cided by his attention to principles of inex¬ 
pressible importance. He must be conscien¬ 
tious and circumspect, for the highway of 
attainment and happiness in knowledge and 
religion beckons no impurity and welcomes no 


HONOR. 


169 


dishonor. Doubtless the Christian pilgrim who 
starts upon his journey in the morning twilight 
bears with him the lamps of wisdom and honor, 
for if he should be overtaken by the dark of 
the night, bright rays will fall and light the 
path. 

The sap is sweet not from the hickory but 
the maple. The deeds of benevolence and 
magnanimity do not spring from a heart where 
selfishness and cowardice influence the motives. 
They do not flow from a breast where ignoble 
ambition plots and strives, and dastardly mean¬ 
ness strikes and stains. They grow out of 
honor as the oak grows out of the acorn. 
When a man is gentle and considerate, noble 
and chivalrous, sacrificing his own comfort for 
the happiness of others, we behold in him not 
only the elements of the hero, but the qualities 
of the gentleman. And history, as if to arouse 
the noblest impulses and stimulate the loftiest 
sentiments, introduces the characters who, by 
their chivalry and considerateness, have honored 
their land and name. 

Sir Philip Sidney, educated at Oxford and 
Cambridge, became a favorite of the English 
Queen, as well as an ornament to the English 
army. He was a man of superior mould and 
exquisite grace, scholarly in his attainments 


I/O APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and refined in his manners. He was gentle and 
chivalrous, urbane and considerate ; one of the 
most cultured and accomplished of gentlemen, 
and one of the most pleasing and interesting of 
writers. He was devoted to polite learning and 
elegant society, and he was called the jewel of 
the dominions of Elizabeth, and as such he fell 
on the battle-ground of Zutphen. Here his 
horse was shot from under him. In the hour 
of death, when suffering from thirst, he handed 
with characteristic magnanimity his cup of 
water to a private soldier whose need seemed 
greater than his own. He was the fairest 
flower of courtesy and nobleness that ever 
sprang from the soil of England. 

Sir Ralph Abercromby was a scholar and a 
gentleman, having been an earnest student at 
the famous universities of Edinburgh and Leip- 
sic. He was a man of generous impulses and 
extensive acquirements, and was swayed by 
principles of virtue and honor. He was gentle 
in his feelings and magnanimous in his senti¬ 
ments, and belonged to that nobility which 
receive their patent from the Ruler of the Uni¬ 
verse. Attracted to the military dominion, he 
abandoned the legal profession, and became a 
distinguished officer in the British army. He 
operated in Ireland and Scotland, and was 


HONOR. 


171 


finally appointed to command the expedition 
to the Mediterranean. In the battle of Aboukir 
he was mortally wounded, and was tenderly 
carried in a hammock on board the Foil- 
droyant . He was suffering great pain, and to 
afford him a little relief a soldier’s blanket was 
placed under his head. He wanted to know 
what it was, and when informed it was only a 
soldier’s blanket, he inquired what soldier and 
of what regiment, raising himself on his elbow. 
He was told it was one of the men’s, when he 
said, with the darkness of dissolution thicken¬ 
ing around him, that he wished to know the 
name of the man. 

SOLDIER: “ It is Duncan Ray’s, of the 42d, 
Sir Ralph.” 

SIR Ralph : “ Then see that Duncan Ray 
gets his blanket this very night.” 

See how honor blossoms amidst the smoke 
and fire of battle. See the magnanimity and con¬ 
siderateness of this gallant officer in the hour 
of death. Even to ease his dying agony he 
would not deprive the soldier of his blanket for 
a single night. Rest upon the blanket of no 
soldier without considering his comfort. Take 
the armor from no warrior without remember¬ 
ing his defence. These are the sentiments of 
the thoughtful and generous who would girdle 


172 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

the planet with their honor. They devote 
themselves to a noble service, like Hancock, 
the renowned patriot, who was willing that 
Boston should be burned, and he made a beg¬ 
gar, if the public good required it. They forget 
themselves in their considerate regards for 
others, like Lawrence, the popular governor, 
who fell in the attack upon Lucknow, and who 
requested the sorrowing soldiers to make no fuss 
over him , but to bury him with the men. 

And what redeeming sympathy and munifi¬ 
cent endowment do we behold in the hospitals 
of Europe and America. What unimpeachable 
testimony we have here of the nobility and 
benevolence of human nature, where noble ser¬ 
vice is rendered to the needy and unfortunate. 
How true is the statement of one of the greatest 
orators of classical antiquity, that calamity is 
the opportunity of virtue— Calamitas virtutis 
occasio est. Look into the hospitals at Scutari 
where English soldiers, wounded and dying, 
are being nursed and attended by English 
women. And there in the lonely watches, see 
how the bronzed veterans, wakeful from intense 
suffering, bless the form of Florence Nightin¬ 
gale, that angel of mercy, as she passes by 
their midnight couches with healing in her 
words and looks. 


HONOR. 


173 


It is said that history repeats itself. Here 
and there in different periods the flower of 
honor comes into full bloom. It indicates a 
rich soil and a benignant heaven, and its odor 
fills the country. We see this in the noble 
character of William Russell, who with other 
prominent noblemen opposed the injustice and 
corruption of the English Government when ad¬ 
ministered by the designing and unscrupulous. 
He was a man of the greatest purity and high¬ 
est culture ; a lover and defender of constitu¬ 
tional liberty, and worthy the respect and 
veneration of the latest generation. He was 
unjustly arrested on the statement that he was 
a conspirator against the king, and was impris¬ 
oned in the Tower. While there Lord Caven¬ 
dish proposed to change clothes with him and 
remain in his place, to which Lord Russell sent 
a smiling refusal. Girded with integrity and 
crowned with honor he walked heroically and 
triumphantly to death. 

All disinterested service, supplemented by 
willing sacrifice, to advance science and discov¬ 
ery, justice and humanity, the glory of art and 
the triumph of law, develops gratitude and 
elicits honor. This is the promise of the fu¬ 
ture. Take this away and the wheel of prog¬ 
ress is locked, the door to position is closed, 


174 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and there are no labors and triumphs to enrich 
history and inspire humanity. But behold the 
liberality and gratitude of mankind in the 
monuments which have been erected to the 
memory and honor of such illustrious bene¬ 
factors as Columbus and Luther, Nelson and 
Wilberforce, Washington and Lincoln. A 
classical author says, with great truth, that 
posterity gives to every man his true honor. 

Suum cuique decus posteritas rependit. 

Tacitus. 

There is nothing more amiable and win¬ 
ning than the genuine politeness of the heart. 
There is nothing more beautiful and encourag¬ 
ing than the considerate magnanimity of the 
soul. These come from the instinct of honor, 
and they find a hearty recognition in the work¬ 
shop and the cabinet, and in every circle where 
men think and toil. There is no principle more 
highly valued or deeply respected than that of 
honor. In the great spheres of meritorious 
effort it is the index of nobility, the exponent 
of chivalry, admired by the sage and his follow¬ 
er, and esteemed by the king and his coun¬ 
sellor. 

Be noble, and the nobleness that lies 
In other men, sleeping, but never dead, 

Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. 

Lowell. 


HONOR. 


175 


A painstaking chronicler says when Bona¬ 
parte was on his dreary island he took a long 
walk one day with Las Cases, his devoted fol¬ 
lower. Upon his return he met two promi¬ 
nent ladies, and while engaged in conversation 
with them some slaves with heavy burdens 
came toiling and struggling up the path that 
was narrow and rugged. One of the ladies, 
without the pulse of considerateness and in 
the tone of displeasure, ordered the servants to 
keep back, when Napoleon, with the courtesy 
and gentleness of Bayard, turned to her and 
said, respect the burden, madame. 

There can be no honor where there is no 
honesty. Cicero remarks what is becoming is 
honest and what is honest is becoming. This 
is a virtue that is regal and swaying, and it be¬ 
comes the most humble as well as the most 
eminent. Ausonius advises the individual to 
respect himself though there is no witness. 
Without honesty the most scholarly and opu¬ 
lent drop into the character of the dastard and 
the poltroon. Montaigne is of the opinion that 
all knowledge is hurtful to him who has not 
honesty. It is hurtful because there is nothing 
to restrain unlawful desire, or fetter unreason- 
ing passion. It is hurtful because it becomes 
so powerful and controlling in the region of 


iy6 APPLICATION' AND ACHIEVEMENT . 


vice and crime. If knowledge is the steam 
which drives the locomotive, honesty is the 
break which keeps the train from plunging into 
destruction. Honesty must dwell in the heart 
of the citizen to have elevated society and im-' 
partial government, as oil must dwell in the 
lamp before we can have the room lighted and 
the book opened. 

Honor is not won 

Until some honorable deed is done. 

Marlowe. 

In the light of republican institutions talent 
is rewarded and honor is esteemed, though they 
may be exhibited in the humblest places. With 
the press and the school the people are advanced, 
and Worth takes the place of Sham, and Talent 
curbs the rein of Stupidity. Now and then an 
unworthy person may succeed in getting posi¬ 
tion and power, and by some perfidious manoeu¬ 
vring may hold his place for a time, like a dead 
leaf on the tree in winter, but a strong breeze 
of popular indignation or of retributive justice 
will sooner or later sweep him down ! 

Among the most conspicuous and honored 
for bravery and gentleness, for courtesy and 
magnanimity, stands the Chevalier Bayard. 
He possessed so many high-born virtues and 
charming graces that he was admired and 


HONOR. 


177 


eulogized by all his contemporaries. He was 
the soul of honor and benevolence, of virtue 
and chivalry, and his bravery as a soldier 
equalled his courtesy as a gentleman. After 
his brilliant victory at Marignano and his noble 
defence of Mezieres he entered Paris and was 
hailed as the savior of France, and was knighted 
for his heroic services. Among his numerous 
virtues he made justice the most prominent 
and important, and endeavored to give it com¬ 
manding influence. He was a man of extra¬ 
ordinary character, brilliant and chivalrous, 
greatly esteemed in life and widely lamented 
in death. He is a star commanding the eye of 
the mariner on the ocean of life. 

There is a pleasure in contemplating the 
smooth lives of such men as Roger Ascham 
and Izaak Walton. They lived in a serene 
atmosphere, freed from the deadly malaria of 
dishonesty and corruption. They allowed none 
of the ambitions and jealousies of the world to 
disturb their serenity or destroy their equa¬ 
nimity. They moved along quietly and 
smoothly in their unsounding occupations, 
adding to the interest and elegance of litera¬ 
ture, and by their reflections and acquirements 
giving food and wine to thought. Here are 

Roger Ascham hanging on the page of his 
12 


178 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

book and Izaak Walton lingering on the bank 
of the stream, and with their unblemished in¬ 
tegrity and undoubted honor passing away in 
the evening of life, like gentle clouds that had 
helped to beautify the needy world with their 
copious showers. 

Honor is the indispensable adjunct in the 
triumphant career which is to tell upon order 
and decorum in society. Take for instance the 
pulpit, and behold how character gives force to 
the sermon and makes it impressive if not con¬ 
vincing. Take Edwards with his logical acumen 
and profound reasoning, and Wayland with his 
scholarly treatment and potent argument. Take 
Martineau with profundity of intellect and 
mastery of language, and Robertson with com¬ 
prehensive ability and philosophical statement. 
Take Chapin with glowing imagery, fine 
thought, and thrilling oratory, and Simpson 
with surpassing talent, powerful sympathy, and 
uplifting eloquence. 

What contributed to the greatness and glory 
of such men in their sacred calling but their 
purity and integrity, their sincere devotion and 
complete consecration, with honor in their 
breasts? They stood among the foremost of 
their period and country as thinkers and 
scholars, as rhetoricians and orators, and lovers 






HONOR. 


179 


of humanity. Snatch honor from the bosom, 
and how their learning and ability are com¬ 
promised, how their power and influence are 
clogged, and how their voice becomes the voice 
of mockery and defeat. Without honor they 
are temples with the windows broken and the 
candles quenched. 

To estimate the importance of honor we need 
to contemplate its power in the affairs of busi¬ 
ness. Behold the high office it fills in the great 
kingdom of traffic, with its extensive interests 
and enormous activities. Behold how men of 
sagacity and enterprise exchange millions of 
dollars through its binding influence and pro¬ 
tecting power. Contemplate its greatness in 
the banking system, which, with its mighty 
energies and reciprocal interests, stretches into 
every country and latitude. Remove the 
principle of honor, and how powerful banks 
would topple, how mammoth stores would 
tumble, and how factories and warehouses 
would be confused and closed, and how the 
dominion of business would be convulsed and 
shaken, with Distress filling the streets. 

Truth is the foundation and adornment of 
honor. We look at the locomotive, and admire 
the ingenuity and greatness of man in its con¬ 
struction. We scrutinize its complicated ma- 


180 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

chinery, and glorify the constructive faculty 
which makes man a king in the dominion of 
matter. We are impressed with the massive 
wheels, its prodigious strength, its majestic 
tread, its defiant scream. It is a magnificent 
creation, has sleeping muscles of power and 
endurance, has fleetness of limb and bright¬ 
ness of eye. There it stands, cold but bright, 
with astonishing capacity, manifesting no 
splendid movements, exhibiting no herculean 
energies till the match is applied. Then it 
begins to reveal its power and grandeur, and 
with the bidding of the engineer it rushes 
across the continent and stimulates business 
from sea to sea. 

Man is the noblest creation of God. He is 
endowed with reason and intelligence; he is 
clothed with power and authority; he has 
latent talent and virtue, slumbering genius and 
sympathy. What thought is packed in the 
cells of his brain, and what nobleness is planted 
in the furrows of his bosom ! There are poems, 
pictures, inventions, and orations hidden away 
in the secret places of his affluent nature; the 
epochs of history and the wonderful reveal- 
ments of philosophy and religion, sleep in the 
silent retreats of his opulent being. There he 
stands, with godlike capacity, capable of achieve 


HONOR . 


181 


ing the grandest results for society and civiliza¬ 
tion, but accomplishing nothing till the fire of 
truth is kindled on the altar of the heart. 
Then he begins to exhibit his native power and 
inborn wisdom ; then he plods with argument 
or soars with imagination ; then he gives wheels 
to Reform and wings to Discovery; then, with 
a word ora blow, he sends the world forward to 
catch the light of Knowledge or grasp the boon 
of Liberty. 

A man of veracity is a man of honor. He is 
truthful as he is virtuous. For no considera¬ 
tion would he desert a righteous principle. He 
is a man of integrity and nobleness, and these 
are among the predominant qualities of the 
loftiest characters. His heart is guarded 
against the evils and passions of the world, and 
out of it flow the streams of purity and benevo¬ 
lence, knowledge and magnanimity, which 
gladden and refresh the race. He belongs to the 
class that have stainless probity and courtly de¬ 
meanor, who are trustworthy and honorable in 
every relation and dealing, and who, with 
splendid virtues and inspiring sentiments, are 
helping to stimulate and advance the world. 


ADVERSITY. 


The heart, like the earth, has its season's of 
storm and calm, with flying clouds and drifting 
leaves. It has its days of cold and gloom and 
its nights of moaning sounds and dripping tears. 
The line of shadow falls upon the heart with 
its desires and expectations, as upon the 
earth with its flowers and cereals. And follow¬ 
ing that line in the heart as in the earth, we 
often behold the budding of virtue and the 
blossoming of genius. 

Mankind are more or less acquainted with 
these vicissitudes. They know something of 
this subject as an experiment, if not as a 
philosophy. Those who have climbed to the 
hill-top of distinction have walked through the 
valley of obscurity. Many who have enjoyed 
success have suffered defeat, and the cup of 
pleasure has been changed for the cup of sor¬ 
row. The day of prosperity is followed by the 
night of adversity, and the song of rejoicing has 
been turned into the wail of lamentation. The 
heart that has been warmed by the bright rays 

182 


ADVERSITY . 1 83 

of expectancy has been chilled by the gloomy 
shadow of disappointment. 

The morning which sometimes comes with 
golden splendor and with tranquillity sleeping 
on the seas, is followed by the evening which 
brings dark clouds that frown and flame and 
belch thunder among the hills. The wealthy 
and the indigent, the celebrated and the un¬ 
known, are all subject to the vicissitudes which 
bring depression and melancholy to-day and ex¬ 
ultation and transport to-morrow. The king, 
surrounded by his brilliant retinue of courtiers 
and ambassadors, sinks and rises in feeling and 
spirit like the poor man in the thatched cottage, 
over whose threshold fashion never stalked, and 
around whose board prodigality never flowed. 

We are not always in the mood to compre¬ 
hend how difficulties and disappointments 
operate for the advancement and happiness of 
mankind in the ultimate. Their mission is not 
to bewilder the mind and oppress the heart 
with nothing beyond in view; but to arouse 
talent and unfold virtue. The clouds mutter 
and threaten ; but they give the rain which 
makes the fields smile and the streams sing. 
All difficulties and disappointments come as 
educators and quickeners ; training the facul¬ 
ties, stimulating the energies, and making the 


184 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

individual competent to grapple and overcome 
the things which challenge the intellect and 
the purpose. 

They teach the brain and the hand. They 
encourage mankind to exhibit noble daring and 
sublime heroism on the grounds that are 
bloody, and on the fields that are stainless. 
They develop that marvellous ability which 
enables the individual to conquer the opposing 
circumstance, and make it a teacher and a 
helper. When bitter trials sweep over the 
soul like storm clouds with their threatening 
and commotion, faculties and virtues are evolved 
which make man conscious of his resources and 
his talents, conscious of his ability to devise 
and succeed, conscious of his increased knowl¬ 
edge and enlarged capacity. Addison writes : 


The gods in bounty work up storms about us, 

That give mankind occasion to exert 
Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice 
Virtues that shun the day, and lie concealed 
In the smooth seasons and calms of life. 


Flaxman, when young and enamoured with 
poetry and statuary, entered the Royal Acad¬ 
emy. He was gifted and noble, and went to 
work at his studies and models with masterly 
ability and conquering perseverance. He was 



ADVERSITY. 


I8 5 


popular with the students and the teachers, 
and he gained several prizes as the humble 
scholar from Covent Garden. Later he became 
a candidate for the gold prize; and many who 
were acquainted with his capacity prophesied 
that he would gain it; but he lost it. His 
failure caused him to redouble his diligence and 
industry; he designed and modelled incessantly, 
and made consequently rapid progress. Engle- 
hart, who won the coveted medal, dropped be¬ 
hind ; and Flaxman, stung to renewed energy 
by his mortifying defeat, arose to eminence 
and distinction, and linked his name with the 
noted sculptors of the world. 

Savonarola, who was a devout student, came 
to Florence, and entered the celebrated convent 
of his influential order. He was acquainted 
with the philosophy of Greece, which was 
popular with the schoolmen of Italy. His 
mind was, however, tinged with religious as¬ 
ceticism, and, swayed by ecclesiastical attraction, 
he prepared himself for the office and dignity 
of the pulpit. After he completed his novitiate 
he began his public ministry as a preacher ; but 
in his initiatory sermon he broke down, and 
made a signal failure. He was embarrassed 
and chagrined, and left the church in the 
black robe of a terrible humiliation. The failure 


1 86 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

aroused his slumbering elements of greatness 
and power ; and with determined energy and 
unyielding perseverance he succeeded, and be¬ 
came one of the most renowned of pulpit 
orators. 

It is for our discipline and attainment that 
we have to struggle against hardship and 
penury. We do not realize our resources and 
capabilities till we are confronted by disap¬ 
pointment and smitten by necessity. We do 
not appreciate our reserved powers, nor esti¬ 
mate our unwaiting opportunities, till the hour 
calls for great thought and speedy action. 
When we are allowed to move along quietly 
and smoothly, with nothing to unfetter our 
ambition, nor ornament our character, with the 
frost of selfishness locking the stream of kind¬ 
ness, we are likely to become useless members 
of a burdened society. With no commotion to 
awaken ability, no necessity to summon talent, 
nothing to fetch virtue and genius into promi¬ 
nence and control, we are likely to become 
drones in the great hive of human industry, 
where the honey of knowledge and goodness is 
stored. 

Many men resemble glass, smooth, polished, and dull so 
long as unbroken ;—then sharp, every splinter pricks. 

Richter. 


ADVERSITY . 


187 

Let man have nothing to call out the skill 
and cunning of the hand ; nothing to call out 
the force and grandeur of the mind ; and the 
danger is he will pass into the avenue of indo¬ 
lence and transgression. But let a man be 
jostled from his orbit; let some cherished en¬ 
terprise be defeated, or some favorite theory 
be demolished, and see how he will become a 
marvel and a conqueror. Defeat only sharpened 
the penetration and augmented the capacity of 
Blucher, who, when overmatched and routed at 
Ligny, came up with increased valor at Water¬ 
loo, and threw with awful destruction his deter¬ 
mined army against Napoleon, whose star was 
sinking and fading, never to reappear and 
inspire. 

Look at the sea when it sleeps in a calm, and 
you witness no exhibition of its puissance and 
grandeur. You know nothing of its power and 
sublimity till it is lashed by the storm and rises 
with terror and commotion. The sleeping giant 
breaks from his silent repose, and now, struggling 
with the elements, he exhibits great strength 
and prodigious energy. How furious and ter¬ 
rific is the struggle, with the awful contortions 
of the body and the destructive tendencies of 
the spirit! From a dead calm the ocean rises 
with sublimity, displays its majesty, heaves the 


1 88 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


vessels of every nation as though they were the 
playthings of children, and sends its waves with 
snowy ruffles upon the shore of every country. 

Horace observes that adversity has the effect 
of eliciting the talents which in prosperity 
would have lain dormant. Without this adver¬ 
sity how great is the number who never would 
have exerted their hidden powers, nor exercised 
their latent talents. They would have been 
dull streams without energy or inspiration, 
moving no wheels in the mill and floating no 
rafts to the town. What poets and orators, 
what scientists and discoverers, what artists 
and statesmen, what physicians and jurists, 
have come, with elegant scholarship and bril¬ 
liant genius, through the pressure of adversity. 
When the plow turns up the soil that has been 
indolent and indifferent, and the grain is sown, 
behold the activity of silent forces in hidden 
recesses, till the harvest comes with sheaves to 
gladden and enrich. 

Take for an illustration the career of Samuel 
Johnson, the accurate scholar and the celebrated 
lexicographer. He entered Pembroke College, 
and struggled like a giant against poverty and 
melancholy. He was a man of colossal intellect 
as well as of domineering disposition. He went, 
after leaving the university, to Birmingham, 


ADVERSITY. 


189 


and after working there for a time for a book¬ 
seller he journeyed to London, where he was 
forced by necessity to write for the magazines. 
He was compelled to occupy the humblest 
quarters and to partake of the plainest dinners. 
He was, according to his own confession, care¬ 
less and indolent. It was the lash of poverty 
which made him work in the fields of literature 
and philosophy. What sheaves of knowledge 
and virtue did he reap and bind when the har¬ 
vest gave the smile of welcome. His acquire¬ 
ments enriched England and contributed to 
learning in Europe. He drew to his circle of 
friendship the most prominent and illustrious 
in law and statesmanship, in art and literature. 
Had Johnson been surrounded with affluence 
in youth he would doubtless have tumbled into 
the lap of indolence, and Boswell would never 
have written the most entertaining biography 
of modern history. 

Necessity is the touchstone of genius and 
power. 

Necessitatis inventa sunt antiquiora quam voluptatis. 

Cicero. 

It is the revealer of slumbering ability. It is 
the exhibitor of unknown greatness. Let it be 
removed, and mankind would remain in barba- 


I 90 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

ric ignorance and savage ferocity. It is the 
educator and the drainer. It is the instigator 
of all discovery and invention, the stimulator 
of all improvement and advancement. It de¬ 
manded the wheel and the plow, the hammer 
and the trowel, the compass and the telescope. 
It summoned the shop and the store, the labora¬ 
tory and the academy, the steamship and the 
locomotive. It compelled the evolution of 
civilization, the institution of government, and 
the rule of thought. 

With the demand comes the supply. From 
the force of necessity, what triumphs we have 
in mechanics and engineering, in construction 
and navigation. It is necessity that tunnels 
mountains, bridges rivers, opens quarries, and 
builds cities, beckoning a higher order of civili¬ 
zation and government to come and sway the 
restless period. In this behold the exhibition 
of that intellectual capacity and sovereign 
greatness which would have remained unseen 
and unknown in the smooth calms and tranquil 
seasons of life. No bursting forth of genius, 
no flaming up of patriotism, no unfolding of 
character, so impressive and uplifting; no ex¬ 
hibition of virtue, so indispensable to greatness 
and so ornamenting to manhood ! 

It is the storm which forces the tree to send 


ADVERSITY. 


I 9 I 

its roots deeper in the soil, to have a firmer 
hold against the battling elements. This in¬ 
creases its demand upon the treasury of the 
soil, taking from it a greater amount of nour¬ 
ishment and distributing it through its various 
channels. This, with the ministry of the light 
and rain, is converted into woody fibre and 
luxuriant foliage, and the tree grows in vigor 
and beauty, giving a nest to the bird and a 
shade to the beast. The storm develops its 
brawny muscles and majestic qualities, as it 
passes through the season of summer into the 
dominion of autumn. 

So does the storm of trial and hardship work 
upon the faculties and virtues of mankind. So 
does the frost of disappointment and misfortune 
bring forth that brilliancy of thought and 
grandeur of deed which stir men to higher 
ambitions and nobler activities. The trium¬ 
phant career of such men as Thomas Erskine 
and Richard Cobden, of Charles O’Conor and 
Henry Wilson, who rose to be so prominent 
and distinguished as jurists and statesmen, is 
laudable and stimulating. The poverty and 
trouble they were compelled to struggle with 
and overcome called forth all their resources 
and energies, and gave them admirers and 
followers. 


I92 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

John Huss was one of the most eminent and 
conscientious of thinkers and reformers. He 
loved the truth, and he marched to the stake with 
firmness and courage, and died for its triumph 
and glory. The smiting energy of bigotry and 
hatred in that frosty period brought into promi¬ 
nence his splendid abilities and his golden 
virtues. 

Madame Roland was one of the grandest 
and noblest of martyrs. What exalted senti¬ 
ments were expressed and what robust virtues 
were displayed by this patriotic woman during 
her trial and on her way to the remorseless 
guillotine! The frosty atmosphere of animosity 
and persecution brought into ripeness and 
dropped into history her extraordinary qualities 
as well as her inspiring sentiments. The cart 
which carried her to the execution was trans¬ 
formed into a chariot of honor and glory, the 
wheels flashing in the light of immortality. 

The tree does not send forth its waters of 
sweetness till it is bored. When the auger 
enters the tree the liquid, hidden and unknown, 
begins to flow and cheer the farmer. There 
are men who never send forth streams of kind¬ 
ness and sympathy, of wisdom and inspiration, 
till their hearts are pierced by a great trial or 
an unexpected bereavement. They contribute 


ADVERSITY. 


193 


nothing valuable and beneficial to humanity 
until they are struck by a misfortune or a 
necessity, and then they open their stores of 
hidden sympathy and unknown richness. 
Breaking the fetters of lethargy and indiffer¬ 
ence, they gravitate like a bright star into a 
wider circle of activity and glory. 

Bonnivard, the Prisoner of Chillon, was one 
of the most noble patriots and learned scholars. 
He loved justice and liberty, for which he 
struggled and sacrificed. He stood up bravely 
and heroically to defend Geneva, in opposition 
to the machinations and operations of the Duke 
of Savoy. By the tyranny and command of 
this prince, he was confined as a prisoner in the 
Chateau of Chillon. Here he remained for 
some years, because of his great love for country 
and humanity. Through all this hardship and 
persecution, Bonnivard unfolded those superb 
qualities and cultured graces which were not 
only recognized and honored in Geneva, but in 
every country. When he left Chillon and went 
to Geneva he was welcomed and honored by 
its citizens as their patriot and benefactor ; and 
there he took up not only the cause of Science 
but of Toleration, and proved himself one of 
the wisest and noblest of men. 

And thus do persecutions and cruelties tend 
13 


194 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

to bring into exercise the most commanding 
faculties, and into prominence the most affluent 
virtues. And thus is history enriched and so¬ 
ciety advanced, by the cultured and patriotic, 
the intelligent and benevolent, who have been 
compelled to carry forward their labors against 
opposition and malignity. The pruned trees 
yield the richest fruit. Spenser writes: 

So do the winds and thunder cleanse the air ; 

So working bees settle and purge the wine ; 

So lopped and pruned trees do flourish fair. 


The genius and virtue, the talent and goodness 
displayed in the conflict with hardship and suf¬ 
fering, constitute the valuable gold which drops 
from the spiritual mint. The stone shows fire 
when it is struck. For there is nothing more 
inventive than suffering, is the declaration of 
one of the most scholarly and pious of the 
Christian Fathers. 

Ovdiv yap rov Ttddx eiv evperixoorEpov. 

Gregory Nazianzen. 

It is through this experience of suffering that 
we behold the greatest ability and the sweetest 
piety. What sovereignty of intellect and nobil¬ 
ity of character do we behold in the severe 
struggle against corruption and despotism. 


i 


ADVERSITY. 


195 


What talents to admire and venerate, and what 
virtues to esteem and emulate, in the bitter 
conflict against heartless scheming and incorri¬ 
gible wickedness. Among the intractable and 
mendacious, the virulent and malignant, man 
has to be a faithful sentinel and a valiant soldier; 
wearing the polished armor of moral integrity. 
He is in danger of being annoyed by misrepre¬ 
sentation and attacked by slander, which, post¬ 
ing on the unseen winds through the fretful 
world, are the 


-“ silly moths that eat 

An honest name. ” 

William of Orange made an heroic effort 
against the tyrannical designs of Philip the 
Second to establish the Inquisition in Holland. 
He was a man of the highest culture and the 
sturdiest character, surrounded by enemies and 
assassins, and visited by calumny and detrac¬ 
tion ; but he bore all with marvellous patience 
and intrepid courage. There were suspicions 
and opprobriums spreading their black wings 
and sweeping over the agitated country. All 
his difficulties revealed his tranquil majesty and 
unflinching courage. He gathered his followers 
and defenders from circles smitten by discord 
and confusion ; and defeating powerful leaders 



I96 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

and distinguished princes, he conducted one of 
the most important revolutions in History, and 
made Holland great and free. 

These crises exhibit the qualities that are 
possessed. They disclose the elements that 
have been unseen. The pressure of necessity 
reveals the constitution and complexion of 
character. It unfolds the inexorable purpose 
and the inflexible rectitude, which dictate hu¬ 
mane policies and decide righteous movements. 
These principles belong to character that is 
sterling and upright, as yellow and purple 
belong to the rainbow which arches the fields 
and the woods. The quartz yields gold under 
the hammer of the miner. Man yields the gold 
of thought and virtue under the hammer of ne¬ 
cessity. Adversity shows what attributes are 
possessed, and what principles are cherished. 
The greater the pressure, the greater the exhi¬ 
bition of talents and virtues. Witness this in 
the careers of eminent persons like Columbus 
and Copernicus, like Cromwell and Washing¬ 
ton, and like Gladstone and Lincoln. 

It is adversity that shows the strength of 
character. And character, like everything to 
be valued and esteemed in the circles of study 
and labor, comes by culture and training. It is 
adversity which makes it a force to stimulate 


ADVERSITY. 


197 


and encourage. It is the battle that shows the 
bravery of the soldier; it is the storm that 
shows the ability of the sailor. 

He that wrestles with us, sharpens our skill. 

Our antagonist is our helper. 

Burke. 

To have beautiful and symmetrical character, 
man must have moral and mental discipline. 

Epictetus remarks that difficulties are the 
things which show what men are. History 
corroborates this statement. The men who 
have succeeded have struggled through difficul¬ 
ties. And these-difficulties have roused talent 
and reason, wisdom and judgment from their 
sleeping chambers. They have called into ac¬ 
tivity the ingenuity and sagacity which were 
hidden behind the veils of apathy and uncon¬ 
cern. In spite of infamous jealousy and vil¬ 
lainous scheming, in spite of contemptuous 
attitude and frowning hatred, they summon 
the power to comprehend and overcome, and 
enable man to climb to his rightful position 
and give the world the benefit of his talents. 

Difficulties show the capacity to plan and 
execute, to work and achieve. They show the 
ability that was concealed, and the greatness 
that was obscured. Austerlitz showed what 
was in Napoleon, and Trafalgar what was in 


198 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Nelson. After a severe struggle against pov¬ 
erty Hamlet showed what was in Shakespeare. 
After a heroic battle against adversity Lycidas 
showed what was in Milton. And so the tele¬ 
scope revealed the sagacity of Galileo, and the 
printing-press the ingenuity of Gutenberg. The 
steamboat exhibited the constructive faculty of 
Fulton, and the locomotive the inventive ability 
of Stephenson. 

No one can look at the Bridge which spans 
East River, uniting two great cities, without 
thinking of the mechanical ability of Roebling, 
the honored citizen of Brooklyn. What a dis¬ 
tribution of harmony and support, and what an 
exhibition of strength and grace in this mag¬ 
nificent superstructure ! And what a triumph 
over difficulties ! As long as this river flows, 
and ships come here with their colors and drop 
their anchors, the thoughtful and observing 
will honor the ability of the engineer and 
builder of this highway of travel. 

Adversity evokes what is greatest and noblest 
in the minds and hearts of men. It stirs talent, 
it fires genius, it arouses ambition, it quickens 
enterprise. It encourages education and phi¬ 
lanthropy, it summons justice and liberty. It 
stimulates the study and inspires the labor 
which give to humanity all their acquirements. 


ADVERSITY. 


199 


Behold it in the labors of all who come from the 
fields with their arms filled with sheaves. Aye, 
the most trying difficulties often develop the 
most magnificent qualities. Samuel Smiles 
gives a very interesting account of the very 
successful careers of such men as Richard 
Foley and William Petty. They rose to emi¬ 
nent distinction from very humble stations. 
They, like other distinguished statesmen, came 
up through severe hardships and appalling diffi¬ 
culties, and founded their respected houses. 
And so, by irresistible energy and unflagging 
perseverance, arose Lord Lyndhurst, whose 
father was a portrait painter, and Lord Ten- 
terden, whose father was an humble barber. 

Men rising from such lowly stations exert 
a stimulating influence upon those who are 
fettered by penury and are struggling for suc¬ 
cess. They show that men reach the desired 
object by unflinching industry. And in their 
progress and success we have irrefragable evi¬ 
dence of secreted potentiality. It is the spur 
which shows the speed of the horse. It was 
a fearful battle against discouraging circum¬ 
stances that showed the valor and bravery, the 
strategy and ability, of such men as Lord El¬ 
don and Lord Campbell. They were forced 
to battle with adversity, to endure every priva- 


200 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tion and disappointment, but with unwavering 
resolution and determined perseverance they 
finally reached the highest office in the Eng¬ 
lish Government. 

Mark how inexorable difficulties reveal the 
highest talents. Witness the brave fight against 
poverty and insanity, at his own fireside, which 
fetched into notable prominence the genial quali¬ 
ties of Charles Lamb. It linked him to some of 
the most prominent and influential in the domin¬ 
ion of letters, and gave him a high place in the 
kind heart of Leigh Hunt. While toiling with 
fidelity at his desk for bread he found time to 
contribute to the magazines to increase his 
limited stipend and widen the scope of his 
acknowledged ability. He walked through the 
fires of affliction and suffering without com¬ 
plaining or demurring, and never sought to 
weaken the springs of obligation and responsi¬ 
bility. He displayed such attractive qualities 
in the chilling atmosphere of trial and affliction 
that he arrested the attention and secured the 
friendship of Wordsworth and Coleridge, Man¬ 
ning and Southey. What a green place he has 
in the loving sympathy of the world. 

Affliction, like the iron-smith, shapes as it strikes.—B ovee. 

Look at this in the character and experience 
of Oliver Goldsmith, the most charming writer 


ADVERSITY. 


201 


of the eighteenth century. He was a man of 
rare gifts and brilliant powers, but indolent and 
imprudent. It was the pressure of adversity 
that brought forth his wonderful productions, 
and hung his name in the temple of literature 
wreathed in loving esteem. He was whimsical 
and injudicious, paradoxical and improvident, 
and yet by the stress of impecuniosity and the 
lash of necessity how he labored and triumphed 
in the fields of thought. 

As a writer he was so mellow and flowing, so 
picturesque and delightful, full of kindly hu¬ 
mor and genial sympathy. And his style was 
always pellucid and entertaining, whether he 
was dealing with history or romance, with criti¬ 
cism or poesy. He was a wayside flower that 
attracted the attention of the weary traveller. 
He found a welcome to the society of the most 
distinguished personages of the highest literary 
circles. He gave an increased interest to the 
intellectual banquets where were gathered such 
men as Johnson and Reynolds, Burke and Gar¬ 
rick. And when he died, behold the number 
who were moved by a common sorrow—the 
wealthy and the indigent, the illustrious and 
the unknown. The genial poet, whose splen¬ 
did genius shone through the gloom of hard¬ 
ship and necessity, was buried in Westminster 


202 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


Abbey among the great and titled. Genius and 
its rewards are briefly told : 


A liberal nature and a niggard doom, 

A difficult journey to a splendid tomb. 

Forster. 

Richter, the prose poet of Germany, in speak¬ 
ing of poverty, said that it was but the pain of 
piercing the ears of the maiden, where you 
hang precious jewels in the wound. When he 
wrote this he was suffering with the burden 
of remorseless penury and sleepless anxiety. 
Through this severe discipline rose Adam 
Clark the eminent commentator, and Robert 
Hall the celebrated preacher. Through this 
severe discipline rose Greeley the renowned 
editor, Powers the famous sculptor, Edmunds 
the distinguished senator, and Bierstadt the 
noted painter. When a rude wind strikes the 
tree the best fruit in the orchard falls. 

It is necessity that knocks at the door of ac¬ 
quirement. If we had no evils to overcome, no 
tyrannies to extirpate, we should know but lit¬ 
tle of the courage and valor of the soldier, and 
of the ability and eloquence of the statesman. 
If we had no errors to remove, no cruelties 
to eradicate, we should know but little of the 
resolution and magnanimity of the reformer, 


ADVERSITY. 


203 


and of the cleverness and proficiency of the 
scientist. These things summon mankind with 
the various orders of endowment and disposi¬ 
tion, and fill the world with uncomplaining in¬ 
dustry, with daring exploits, with profound 
study, and magnificent achievements. The 
parched field calls down the copious rain. 

Burton states that the mind is naturally ac¬ 
tive, and if it be not employed about some 
honest business it rushes into mischief or sinks 
into melancholy. This is a simple truism, cor¬ 
roborated not only by history, but by the 
knowledge of the individual who is acquainted 
with the phases of society. The mind was 
created to be active, and if its powers are not 
exercised in some honorable occupation they 
will be directed to some questionable pursuit 
leading to mischief and degradation. When 
there is nothing laudable and inspiring to en¬ 
gage its faculties and energies, it swings into 
the realm of indolence and unconcern, and is 
smitten by the darkness of melancholy and 
despair. 

In consulting history we discover that indo¬ 
lence was one of the leading causes of the de¬ 
cline and downfall of powerful kingdoms. It 
has brought forth vice and crime, corruption 
and disintegration, and splendid empires have 


204 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tottered and fallen, leaving nothing behind but 
an awful ruin. It has had a tendency to palsy 
the hand of cunning, and to extinguish the 
torch of genius. It has discrowned the mon¬ 
arch and enfeebled the subject. It has bound 
the wing of discovery and chained the wheel of 
advancement. Linger around the walls of Tyre 
and the gates of Thebes, behold the broken 
columns of Palmyra and the standing pillars of 
Baalbec, and then reflect how indolence smoth¬ 
ered talent and retarded enterprise, and, link¬ 
ing mankind to lasciviousness and abomination, 
drew them on to unrelenting destruction. 

The occasion exhibits the character and 
ability of the individual. The occasion deter¬ 
mines his sympathy and sagacity, and shows 
what feelings and powers are in the ascendant. 
Behold this in the labors of philanthropists like 
P'enelon and Oberlin, like Jonas Hanway and 
Peter Cooper. Behold this in statesmen like 
Chatham and O’Connell, Adams and Jefferson, 
Grattan and Conkling. Behold this in patriots 
like Hampden and Cavour, Lafayette and De 
Kalb, who gave all their talents and energies 
to liberty. When the crisis came which was 
to decide the condition and destiny of the 
American colonies, witness for a moment the 
position and influence of James Otis, with his 


ADVERSITY. 


205 


tongue of flame, and Samuel Adams, with his 
hammer of logic, breaking in pieces the fetters 
of servitude. 

Among the greatest and noblest, consider 
how the occasion exhibited the character and 
proficiency of Benjamin Franklin; Consider 
his early conflicts with impecuniosity, and fol¬ 
low him in his lonely travels from Boston to 
Philadelphia, where he battled against dis¬ 
couragement and melancholy, holding fast to 
his virtue and integrity, and seizing every 
opportunity of storing the mind with useful 
knowledge. And through the severe struggle 
against indigence and mockery, behold the 
exhibition of exalted virtues as well as dis¬ 
tinguished acquirements ; the humble printer 
becoming so eminent and illustrious as an 
economist, a patriot, a writer, a philosopher, a 
statesman, and a diplomatist, and unquestion¬ 
ably the fullest man, the deepest man, the most 
sagacious and the most complete of the Western 
Hemisphere. 

His life was gentle ; and the elements 
So mixed in him that nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, This was a man ! 

Shakespeare. 

Men of application are men of acquirement. 
They are often compelled to confront antago- 


206 application and achievement. 

nisms and disarm prejudices. They are often 
necessitated to contend with difficulties and 
battle with hardships. They are like the 
finest metal—the more they are rubbed the 
more they sparkle. Nollekins and Bortolini 
came from the sphere of pressing necessity, 
and displayed the thrilling triumphs of their 
chisels. Wilkie and Turner came from the 
realm of smiting penury, and exhibited the 
wonderful achievements of their pencils. And 
so have come the great poets, like Camoens, 
with his brilliant power, and Tasso with his 
transcendent genius. And so has come from 
the hills of Scotland the honest plowman, sing¬ 
ing of the Mountain Daisy and of his Highland 
Mary, and touching the world into tears. 

There are emergencies which show the quali¬ 
ties of man. The storm gives an exhibition of 
the stoutness of the ship. When Ptolemy, 
surrounded with regal splendor, inquired of 
Apelles, the celebrated painter, for whom he 
bore no friendly regard, who had invited him 
to the banquet in his palace, the artist was 
unable to give the name. The invitation came 
from those who belonged to the court of the 
king, and who, being jealous of the greatness 
and reputation of the artist, took this course to 
have him insulted and humiliated. Apelles 


ADVERSITY. 


20 7 


was a man of indisputable genius as well as of 
incontestable virtue, and he picked up a piece 
of charcoal and in a moment he drew a perfect 
likeness on the wall of the truckling officer who 
had carried the invitation to him, and it was 
recognized immediately by Ptolemy and all 
who were present. This ruler was so moved 
by the splendid ability of the painter that he 
dropped his unreasonable animosity and loaded 
him with riches and honors. 

The order of nature is to advance and ex¬ 
pand. The mind that is fettered by an evil 
habit or a wicked error must be freed, even if 
it requires the schoolmaster of adversity and 
suffering. The mind must grow in knowledge 
and wisdom, and the artificial and the sensu¬ 
ous must be stripped from life. All exorbitant 
vanity and insufferable egotism must be rooted 
from the heart ; so that unostentatious talent 
and unpretentious virtue may be cultivated and 
exercised. If man will not live in consonance 
with the laws of obedience and purity, he must 
not be surprised if some terrible experience, 
like a storm, will sweep upon him with its 
jarring thunder, breaking up his habits of in¬ 
dolence and dissipation. Nothing is allowed 
to occupy a place in the earth when it has 
ceased to bloom and fruit under a benignant 


208 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

heaven. Man must grow and expand ; and if 
he is given to a life of ease and folly, he must 
not be astonished if some smiting calamity 
jostles him into harmony with the supreme 
purpose. 

Many from a state of lassitude and indiffer¬ 
ence have been ushered by adversity into a 
sphere of activity and acquirement. Here their 
habits and feelings have become changed, and 
we behold nascent virtues and budding talent. 
There is an enlargement of the soul, there is 
an expansion of the mind, there is manliness 
of purpose, as their is dignity of bearing. The 
heart which was filled with acrimony now runs 
with sweetness. The cloud of affliction, which 
pours its shower on the heart, opens the flower 
of love. We see kindness and sympathy in the 
disposition, and purity and nobleness in the 
character. And sometimes we see genius rising 
above its unworthy environments, and blossom¬ 
ing into wondrous glory. 

The crown attracts and dazzles by its wealth 
of precious stones and costly pearls. We see it 
in its beauty and grandeur, pressing the head 
and sparkling in the light. We seldom think, 
however, of the operations through which it 
passed, before it assumed its glory and dazzled 
with its splendor. The pearls have been gath- 


ADVERSITY . 


209 


ered from the ocean’s depth, where the white 
foam has been parted by the diver’s plunge. 
The gold has been taken from the bosom of the 
earth, where the miner has lighted his lamp and 
struck the vein. Then by fire and wheel, where 
men toil with hard hands, and faces smeared in 
smoke and flying dust, the crown comes forth 
resplendent and attractive. And so by the fire 
of affliction and the wheel of adversity, the 
crown of honor and glory is wrought and given 
to man. 

And thus have come the gifted and the 
noble, the bright sons of penury and hardship, 
the exalted characters of affliction and ad¬ 
versity ; thus have they come from cellars damp 
and cold, and garrets lonely and desolate ; thus 
have they come from dungeons where they 
slept, and scaffolds where they died ; thus have 
they come with their brilliant talents and un¬ 
tarnished virtues ; thus have they come with 
their arduous labors and glorious achievements; 
the brightest luminaries in the firmament of 

time, inspiring the heart of mankind forever. 

14 


LETTERS. 


HISTORY reveals no period in which we find 
so much intelligence and enterprise among the 
people as in the present. Learning is advancing 
with its institutions and symbols, stimulating 
the intellect and making the student conscious 
of its wonders and beauties. Invention is 
progressing with its laws and wheels, dimin¬ 
ishing manual labor and increasing mental 
activity, and assisting in the development of 
thought. Civilization is widening its borders 
and exhibiting its glories, marching into new 
dominions and gaining new victories, and lifting 
mankind into places of intelligence and power. 
Humanity, struck by the light of knowledge 
and inspiration, is realizing its prerogatives and 
opportunities, and is going forward with con¬ 
quering intellect and luminous virtue. 

Under the controlling energy of the presiding 
genius of the New Age, beautiful cities are 
rising at the sound of hammer and trowel, and 
academies and libraries are opening their doors 
to the youth of the land. Ambition climbs the 


210 


LETTERS. 


211 


hills of learning ; Energy throbs in the avenues 
of business; Enterprise stretches its giddy 
schemes around the globe; and Labor strikes 
the unbroken wilderness, and opens green fields 
to the sun. The college and the asylum seem 
to rise like milestones on the highway of activ¬ 
ity, indicating the great march of a refined 
civilization. 

The effect of learning upon mankind is visible 
to the student. It is visible in the prevalence 
of order and decorum, and in the exhibition of 
intelligence and refinement in the various circles 
of humanity ; it is visible in the intellectual 
activity of the masses, and in the scientific 
progress of the period ; it is visible in the 
march of invention and discovery, and in the 
sway of intellect over matter. 

As we witness the results of alluvial agency 
in the stratified deposits, so we witness the 
effect of learning in the order and refinement of 
society and in the concrete forces of civilization. 
As we witness the results of volcanic agency in 
the towering mountains, with their brows white 
and cold under the reign of winter, so we wit¬ 
ness the influence of learning in the elegant 
buildings where art is enshrined and law is 
revealed, and in the beautiful temples where 
science is exhibited and religion is proclaimed. 


212 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

As the great rocks occupying the elevated 
places in the earth, oscillating at the touch of 
the geologist, indicate the floods which once 
prevailed, so our paintings and statues, our 
essays and poems, our orations and histories, 
indicate the prevalence of learning. The in¬ 
fluence of learning is discernible in all the 
multiplex activities of ambition and enterprise 
and in the thrilling triumphs of science and in¬ 
vention, with Reform banishing evil and error, 
curbing injustice and despotism, and Progress 
leaping over deserted theories and superstitious 
altars, and knocking at the starry gates of the 
future. 

The time was when universities and libraries 
opened their stores of knowledge and wisdom 
to the smallest number. The great mass was 
denied the expansive energy and refining influ¬ 
ence of education. In fact, education was con¬ 
fined to a narrow circle, and blessed only the 
limited number who were favored by fortune. 
Men of transcendent ability have risen from 
absolute penury, and made their talents out¬ 
shine titles and their thoughts outweigh crowns. 
But the immense majority were kept in bond¬ 
age to ignorance and servitude, ruled by a con¬ 
tracted ambition and burdened by a relentless 
tyranny. 


LETTERS. 


213 


Those of genius and power have been the 
great oaks towering in stateliness and majesty 
towards the clouds, overshadowing the small 
trees which have struggled, but failed to obtain 
the light and rain of a benignant firmament. 
And when learning is thus limited and human¬ 
ity is thus burdened, we find a lower order of 
civilization, and the dead leaves of barbarism 
drifting through the century. There is no gen¬ 
eral improvement of humanity, there is no 
gradual uplifting of society, and the period, 
instead of growing active and progressive, 
drifts away like an unmanned vessel upon the 
Stream of Time. 

Promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions 
for the general diffusion of knowledge. 

Washington. 

In the richest periods of Greece and Rome 
we find a few men of paramount ability illumi¬ 
nating their age with their wisdom, and adorn¬ 
ing it with their virtue. They were men of 
surpassing talent and unflagging industry, dis¬ 
tinguished for their attainments in learning 
and morality, and inciting ambition and emula¬ 
tion. But the thought of great minds was 
limited to a narrow circle, and the great bulk 
of mankind did not receive that intellectual 


214 A PPLICA TION A ND A CHIE VEM ENT. 

discipline which comes with schools and col¬ 
leges of science and letters. They were strangers 
to the splendid rhetoric of Cicero, and the 
flowing melody of Virgil ; strangers to the 
mathematical greatness of Archimedes, and the 
dramatic genius of Aischylus ; strangers to the 
salutary teachings of Socrates, and the musical 
numbers of Homer. 

The young who were smiled upon by fortune 
listened to lectures in the schools of Plato and 
Aristotle, Epicurus and Zeno, and they had 
the intellect quickened and the ambition 
aroused ; but the multitude remained in illit¬ 
eracy and darkness. In the brightest periods 
when Pericles flamed and Demosthenes thun¬ 
dered, when Euclid demonstrated his prob¬ 
lems, and Xenophon framed his chapters, and 
the fire of thought glowed in every academic 
retreat, the opportunities and facilities for 
education and improvement were limited, and 
civilization, instead of being vigorous and 
comely, was corrupt and shrunken. With the 
decline of learning there was a decline of soci¬ 
ety ; and when the fires of knowledge and 
virtue began to lower and flicker, Barbarism 
rushed from his hidden retreat, and followed, 
as De Quincey says, close behind the chariot 
wheels of Caesar. 


LETTERS. 


215 


When the splendors of learning began to fade 
on the evening sky of the classical world, the 
night-time of ignorance and depravity soon fol¬ 
lowed. Through dreamy centuries scholastic 
knowledge lingered in the cloister and the 
monastery, where the monks were the pos¬ 
sessors and the rulers. Mankind were strug¬ 
gling with appalling questions, exhibiting no 
grandeur and puissance of intellect, no great¬ 
ness and nobility of character. There was a 
drouth in the fields of education and morality, 
and the bright grains of genius and virtue were 
kept from the hand of the reaper. The intel¬ 
lectual heavens were hung with clouds, tem¬ 
pestuous and fulminating, bearing no bountiful 
seasons to the nations in the silent move¬ 
ments of the hidden constellations of truth. 
Sterility was followed by famine in the mental 
dominion ; and as the black hours were rung 
from the bell of time, humanity, without educa¬ 
tion and character, passed over to the majority 
and left no mark. 

A cheering sunrise was discerned and wel¬ 
comed in the beginning of the fifteenth cen¬ 
tury. The long night of nescience and 
degeneracy began to depart before the ap¬ 
proaching splendors of an intellectual morning. 
Europe rising from the period of infancy under 


21 6 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

the fostering attention and quickening influence 
of Learning, began to exhibit the mental vigor 
of promising manhood. Its artless credulity 
gave place to active reason, its childish timidity 
to resolute courage, with the hopeful budding 
of noble qualities. Petrarch and Dante had 
written in the preceding century, the former 
with elaborate elegance, and the latter with 
sublime grandeur. Their productions, received 
with enthusiasm by the scholarly and the 
erudite, contributed largely to the revival of 
letters. The Latin authors were studied at 
Padua and Florence, while the Greek masters 
were interpreted at Ferrara and Pavia. Learn¬ 
ing was brought out of the prisons in which it 
had been confined, and it began to elevate and 
adorn society. The light of education in the 
East streamed into the West, and universities 
began to blossom into beauty and glory over 
Europe. 

An adverse wind sometimes carries an un¬ 
known seed, and deposits it in another section. 
In time there rises from it a giant tree, not only 
affording a nest for the bird, and a shade for 
the beast, but containing a possible forest, with 
massive ship-timber to meet the wants of a 
kingdom. It is known that when Mohammed 
planted his standard upon the walls of Con- 


LE TTERS. 


217 


stantinople, the learned scholars of that famous 
metropolis were driven into exile. They car¬ 
ried with them into Italy the learning of 
Greece, and kindled a light among those altars 
where orators had spoken and poets had sung. 
As Gibbon has said, the subjects of the Byzan¬ 
tine Throne were still in the possession of a 
Golden Key that could unlock the treasures of 
antiquity. And as Carlyle has said, a word or 
an act cast into the ever-living universe is a 
seed grain which cannot die ; unnoticed to-day 
it will be found flourishing as a banyan grove 
after a thousand years. 

The ancient languages, which had been em¬ 
ployed to embody the best thought of the 
eminent and illustrious, were limited to a few 
erudite scholars. The purity and sweetness of 
the Greek, and the delicacy and refinement of 
the Latin, became lost for a time through the 
carelessness or incapacity of European writers. 
The modern languages began to spread as vig¬ 
orous branches of the great vine known as the 
Indo-European, budding and fruiting in differ¬ 
ent nations west of the Alps. The Anglo-Saxon, 
that wonderful language with its monosyll¬ 
abic characteristics giving vigor to expression 
and power to oratory, grew into prominence 
and favor. Gower, with scholarly ability, and 


218 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Chaucer, with brilliant talent, relieved the lan¬ 
guage of its crudity and complexity, and gave 
it order and harmony. 

The stateliness and grandeur of the Latin 
made it effective in rhetoric, and the grasp and 
strength, the comprehensiveness and euphony 
of the Greek made it effective in philosophy. 
The Anglo-Saxon was simply the core, and by 
the process of assimilation and condensation, 
the wealth of the Latin and the Greek became 
the luscious substance lying between the seed 
and the rind, and when it matured and ripened 
it dropped like good fruit into the English 
Basket, and was carried abroad in the world ! 

The purity and elegance of the English lan¬ 
guage are exhibited in the writings of such 
authors as Blair and Hooker, Burke and Addi¬ 
son, Swift and Berkeley, whose vernacular like 
the sunshine goes round the globe. We behold 
and admire its distinguishing qualities in the 
writings of such persons as Channing and Pres¬ 
cott, Everett and Webster, Irving and Haw¬ 
thorne, whose thought is clear as crystal and 
bright as armor. Witness its surpassing excel¬ 
lence in Hallam and Mackintosh, its unparal¬ 
leled magnificence in De Quincey and Macau¬ 
lay, and its subtle power and charming beauty in 
Starr King and Wendell Phillips. And looking 


LE TTERS. 


219 


back through the silent centuries, as through 
the dim halls hung with many a trophy 
wrenched from Nature by the conquest of 
Letters, we see how Printing summoned the 
dawn of modern history, when the wild steeds 
of Aurora, yearning for her bright yoke, arose : 

“ And shook the darkness from their loosened manes, 
And beat the twilight into flakes of fire ! ” 

With the development of the modern lan¬ 
guages there came the invention of printing, 
which opened a splendid epoch. This inven¬ 
tion separated modern history from the mediae¬ 
val period, and enlarging the dominion of 
literature it became the quickening energy of 
the Renaissance. It stimulated the intellect, it 
aroused the judgment, it sharpened the facul¬ 
ties, it vitalized the energies, and Science and 
Discovery went forth toiling and achieving. 
As the gold is taken from the mine and sent 
through the dominion of business, encouraging 
enterprise and industry, so the thought of the 
greatest and wisest was taken from the cloister 
and monastery and sent through the ranks of 
toil, stimulating investigation and acquisition. 
The thought of the scholarly and profound in 
classical periods was possessed and enjoyed 
when the iron fingers of the press began to 


220 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

work for the dissemination of knowledge through 
the various orders of society. 

Time, the great destroyer of other men’s happiness, only 
enlarges the patrimony of literature to its possessor. 

Isaac Disraeli. 

The invention of printing inaugurated a 
period in which democracy might operate for 
humanity. The eternal truth of human rights 
began to move upon the consciences of the 
people and to open a road for justice and free¬ 
dom. The press, in the form of a cumbersome 
machine, came forth with a tread more potent 
and swaying than an army terrible with ban¬ 
ners. The old gave way to the new, and the 
light of knowledge and reform flashed upon 
the people in Europe from the hills of Ger¬ 
many. Intelligence was conveyed to the peo¬ 
ple, Intellect began to assert its freedom and 
demonstrate its power, and Civilization went 
forth like a sunny morning in autumn, strewing 
the earth with the dead leaves of shams and 
forms. 

The sparks will fly when the embers are 
stirred. The press, sending abroad its various 
publications, stirred the faculties, and con¬ 
ducted the people into the bright fields of intel¬ 
ligence. The corruption and despotism of the 


LETTERS . 


221 


Church were widespread and enormous; and 
when the darkness was deepening, the winds of 
heaven struck the dying fires of purity and rea¬ 
son, and they flamed upon their holy altars. 
There were mutterings of discontent—the cam¬ 
paign was opened, and, with learning unsealing 
the faculty of perception, great truths were 
seized and marched into the arena of polemic 
debate. The blood warmed ; the mind glowed ; 
thought stirred like an electrical current from 
a well-charged battery ; and Logic, hammering 
out its links and lengthening out its chain, sent 
Tyranny down on its knees. Investigation 
scanned the libraries; Agitation rocked the 
universities; and Truth, like a startled bird, 
flew from its hiding-place into the empyrean of 
reform, shaking fire from its wings upon the 
stubble of error and wrong. 

The period had arrived ; and we see Reuchlin, 
talented and profound, speaking the best Greek; 
Erasmus, brilliant and versatile, writing the 
purest Latin ; Melanchthon, studious and schol¬ 
arly, interpreting the sacred oracles ; and 
Luther, with indomitable courage and irresist¬ 
ible eloquence, flaming like a comet through 
the religious heavens. By their studies and 
labors they contributed to swell the great 
stream of thought into a mighty river of power 


222 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

which rolled on with accelerated velocity, sweep¬ 
ing away the obstructing timbers of priestcraft 
and superstition, foaming, sparkling, and thun¬ 
dering in the clear light of God. 

The work of thought advanced in Switzer¬ 
land under the leadership of the talented and 
resolute Zwingli, and in England under the ad¬ 
vocacy of the scholarly and devoted Cranmer. 
If the latter at times wavered and demurred, 
he grew in the ultimate courageous and heroic, 
and in his death he was surpassingly great and 
incomparably grand. Then came such men as 
Latimer, so independent and conscientious, so 
powerful and unyielding; and Ridley, so able 
and devoted, so sincere and unwavering; both 
walking up to the stake and, for the sake of 
truth, shaking their robes off in the flame, and 
passing up to that country where Tyranny is a 
stranger, and Cruelty has no whip nor chain ! 

With the triumph of the Reformation in 
these various countries, we find Learning mak¬ 
ing great strides. An intellectual vigor was 
manifested in Europe, indicating a higher de¬ 
velopment of Character among the people. 
With increased facilities for education the great 
bulk of mankind were gradually elevated, and 
the prerogatives and immunities which were 
theirs, in the light of reason and justice, were 


LE TTERS. 


223 


gradually acknowledged. With the coming of 
this active period, there came the opportunity 
and stimulant for more solid attainments in the 
realm of the mental and the moral. In the 
struggleto obtain knowledge and righteousness, 
prolific natures unfolded superior qualities, and 
the age grew more progressive and luminous. 


Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without 
learning is perilous.— Confucius. 

We behold poetry and philosophy advancing, 
painting and statuary flourishing. We witness 
discovery and invention widening their borders, 
and diplomacy and eloquence winning their tri¬ 
umphs. We discover great minds in the intel¬ 
lectual firmament, shining there like great stars 
of wondrous magnitude. And who can esti¬ 
mate the duration of the power and glory of 
such minds in the great realm of history ? Who 
can estimate their influence upon all learning 
and progress, which are to enrich later periods, 
and stimulate succeeding generations ? 

Behold the activity of mind and the evolu¬ 
tion of thought in philosophy by such foremost 
thinkers as Kant and Leibnitz, Locke and Ham¬ 
ilton. Witness the investigations and discov¬ 
eries in astronomy by such profound scholars 


224 APPLICATION' AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

as Copernicus and Kepler, Newton and Des¬ 
cartes. Behold marvellous revelations in ge¬ 
ology by Lyell and Hutton, and in chemistry 
by Lavoisier and Davy. Witness the valuable 
acquisitions in pneumatics by Mariotte and 
Dalton, and in optics by Seebeck and Brewster. 
Mark what has been accomplished in botany by 
Linnaeus and Von Haller, and in zoology by 
Rondelet and Buffon. Look at what has been 
achieved in acoustics and hydrostatics, in elec¬ 
tricity and galvanism, by such scholars and 
scientists as Laplace and Euler, Huygens and 
Galvani. 

In all these branches of science think of the 
great laws and subtle agents which have been 
revealed, and of the thrilling beauty and won¬ 
derful utility which have been discovered. 
Consider how all this has enlarged the views of 
men concerning the greatness and beneficence 
of the Universe, and the wisdom and goodness 
of the Creator. Consider further how this has 
encouraged the deepest study and elicited the 
best thought, creating that mental activity 
which makes the world richer and grander in 
every scientific revealment and mechanical 
triumph. 

With this activity and progress libraries have 
been founded and sustained. 


LETTERS 


225 


In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most 
precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. 

Channing. 

They are the depositories of thought and 
fact, opening to the student vast stores of 
intellectual wisdom. These libraries are the 
avenues through which we travel back into 
other periods and survey other nations. We be¬ 
hold the broken pillars and the crumbling arches 
of those famous temples where Philosophy 
broadened the mind and Eloquence moved the 
heart. We walk through the groves where 
Meditation summoned the faculties and Poetry 
opened its gushing fountains of metrical sweet¬ 
ness. We stand by the altar where Genius 
trimmed its lamp and Patriotism leaped into a 
flame. We read Sallust and Livy, and listen 
to the brilliant oratory of Tully, we weigh the 
thought of Democritus and Aristotle and bend 
before the moving eloquence of Pericles, and 
the heavens seem to glow with an intellectual 
radiance. 

All who have labored to brighten and enrich 

their period in the past are helpers and teachers 

in the present. They are like Homer who 

wrote the epic, like Ptolemy who originated 

the quadrant, like Pythagoras who invented 

the harmonic and musical scale, like Hipparchus 
15 


226 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

who constructed the solar and lunar tables. 
They are moralists like Seneca and Terence, 
historians like Xenophon and Polybius, drama¬ 
tists like Euripides and ^Eschylus; the latter 
standing with the greatest and highest in the 
temple of literature. Whatever virtue was 
possessed and exhibited survives the fading of 
crowns and the crumbling of thrones, and passes 
through the centuries to inspire the nations. 

Virtus repulsse nescia sordidse, 

Intaminatus fulget honoribus. 

Horace. 

It was in the beginning of modern history 
that men began to cultivate the bright fields of 
literature, like the writers of antiquity. They 
were poets with great sweep of wing and en¬ 
trancing melody of song like Chaucer and 
Spenser, Milton and Dryden. They were 
dramatists of marvellous description and mag¬ 
netic utterance, like Marlowe and Dekker, 
Beaumont and Fletcher, Jonson and Shake¬ 
speare. 

Then came Francis Bacon, the father of 
experimental philosophy, a profound thinker 
and vigorous writer, one of the greatest scholars 
and keenest observers. Then came William 
Chillingworth, whose cultivated intellect and 
vigorous discussion of the subject of religion 


LETTERS. 


227 


made him popular and influential with such 
scholarly writers and ecclesiastical dignitaries 
as Tillotson and Warburton. Then rising into 
prominence with elegant scholarship and rhetori¬ 
cal brilliancy are such men as Sir Thomas 
Browne and Sir Thomas More, and with their 
virtue and wisdom lighting the darker pages of 
English history. Among this number with 
shining foreheads, contributing to literature as 
well as oratory, are Baxter and Bunyan, Thomas 
Fuller so rich and quaint, and Jeremy Taylor 
so brilliant and eloquent. 

When the fields are visited by sunshine and 
shower, the buried seed is quickened and un¬ 
folds the desired grain. And so men, by their 
thoughts in poetry and history, in the romance 
and the essay, in the pulpit and on the plat¬ 
form, arouse the slumbering powers of the 
general public. When gold is discovered there 
is a sensation. Men flock to the mines and 
begin their operations. They are aroused and 
stimulated, and they would be great kings in 
the monetary dominion, ruling banks, control¬ 
ling stocks, governing monopolies, and manipu¬ 
lating associations. And so when great thoughts 
are revealed, when great truths are proclaimed, 
when the beauty and glory of literature are 
placed before the people by the scholarly and 


228 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


gifted, a quickening energy is exerted, and the 
reading multitude grasp for the gold that drops 
from the brain. 

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit in¬ 
heritance of generations and nations. . . . Their authors, 

more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind. 

Thoreau. 

We find brilliant poets like Racine and Cor¬ 
neille, and popular dramatists like Moliere and 
Boileau. We find celebrated writers like Vol¬ 
taire, brilliant and incisive, and D’Alembert, 
scholarly and thoughtful. We find renowned 
essayists like Lamartine with his charming 
ability, and Montaigne with his unequalled 
brilliancy. And among the number appear 
such minds as Pascal the devout scientist, and 
Gassendi the illustrious philosopher, both stimu¬ 
lating study and research. And prominent and 
conspicuous are Fenelon the loving pastor 
and popular writer, and Bossuet the eloquent 
preacher and vigorous author, and both con¬ 
tributing to the greatness and glory of letters. 

Consider the influence of such favorite writers 
as Klopstock and Lessing, and the inspiration 
of such renowned poets as Goethe and Schiller. 
Consider the critical researches and scholarly 
analyses of such profound philosophers as Kant 
and Fichte, Hegel and Schelling. Consider the 


LETTERS , 


229 


learned ability of such minds as Niebuhr and 
Duncker in history and archeology, and Rau- 
pach in historic tragedy. Rising among the 
eminent and celebrated is Heine, weird and 
strange, displaying wonderful power as a lyric 
poet; and Richter, who surpassed all novelists 
who preceded him in the flight of his marvel¬ 
lous fancy and the glow of his incomparable 
genius. 

Thus have different countries furnished 
thinkers and teachers, scientists and philoso¬ 
phers, writers and orators who have contrib¬ 
uted to the advancement of the world. They 
have been great stars belonging to different 
constellations, and dispensing their glad light 
to those in various latitudes who have been 
groping in darkness. These men, in promoting 
learning, have advanced civilization with its 
arts and implements, its laws and institutions, 
and its schools and temples. These men are 
the chosen trees of noble fruit, and beneath 
their opulent branches the people gather with 
their waiting baskets. 

Sometimes a plant will display its vigor and 
greatness in a single flower, whose marvellous 
beauty will arrest the attention and secure the 
admiration of all who are passing. And so we 
behold sometimes the power and grandeur of 


230 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

genius in a single poem, like that of Poe in his 
“Raven,” of Gray in his “Elegy,” of Read in 
his “Closing Scene,” and of Halleck in his 
“ Marco Bozzaris.” 

All the fine juice of the vine flows into a single grape. 

WlLLMOTT. 

We have indubitable evidence of the refine¬ 
ment of the people by a liberal culture. After 
a warm rain the hesitating flower bursts into 
bloom. After days and weeks of quickening 
sunlight the harvests break into gold, and 
beckons the hardy reaper to thrust in his hook 
and toss the sheaf. A slight change in the 
condition of the temperature, when every drop 
of rain and every beam of light becomes an 
active agent, will free the earth from the re¬ 
morseless fetters of winter and clothe it in the 
living verdure of summer. And what are poets 
and thinkers, artists and scientists, writers and 
orators, journalists and philosophers, but light 
and rain to the great fields of humanity, naked 
and barren, and in sore need of quickening and 
unfoldment! 

With this progress in learning, government 
is liberalized and strengthened, and society is 
refined and elevated. There is an advance in 
architecture and geoponics, in machinery and 


LETTERS . 


23I 


horticulture, and then the house and the field, 
the wheel and the tree, have new utilities as 
well as new attractions. With this advance 
in all branches of science and discovery, the 
mountain and the forest, the river and the 
ocean, all contribute their astonishing products 
to satisfy the unceasing demand. And added 
to this comes that activity in the spheres of 
thought and toil, which builds the city and 
navigates the ocean, classifies the flowers and 
explores the stars, and ornaments the highway 
of progress and greatness with colleges and 
temples. 

It is impossible to estimate the power and 
inspiration of literature. 


Literature is that part of thought that is wrought out in the 


name of the beautiful. 


David Swing. 


The influence which comes from the pages 
of poetry and history, biography and oratory, 
to stimulate the faculties is amazing. Men of 
the greatest ability and ripest culture have 
embosomed the living energy of the best minds 
of the past. Solon admired the lyric genius of 
Sappho, and treasured the wonderful beauties 
of her poems. Tully esteemed the mathemati¬ 
cal achievements of Archimedes, and with a 


232 A PPLICA TION A ND A CHIP YEMEN T. 

grateful impulse bowed in silence and honor at 
his tomb. It is observed that Chrysostom was 
in the habit of placing the comedies of Aris¬ 
tophanes under his pillow on account of their 
brilliant composition. It is related that 
Demosthenes so admired the history of Thu¬ 
cydides that to perfect himself as an orator he 
transcribed it eight times, and read it with such 
attention and enthusiasm that he could almost 
repeat it from memory. It was labor of this 
character in regard to oratory that made 
Chatham so powerful and impressive in the 
English Parliament, and Whitefield so attrac¬ 
tive and swaying among the American colonies. 

Willmott, referring to poetry and eloquence, 
shows how men have their models and teachers. 
He says that Dante had his Virgil and Corneille 
his Lucan, that Barrow had his Chrysostom and 
Bossuet his Homer. They held their intellec¬ 
tual tapers to the magnificent flames; they 
drank from the classic fountains, and, refreshed 
and inspired, they wrote with attractive ele¬ 
gance and spoke with kindling power. Milton 
is swayed by the wand of Ovid, and Burke is 
aroused by the magnetism of Cicero. So upon 
the stage of modern history the ancient poet 
comes in a cloth of gold, and the ancient orator 
speaks with words of fire. The galvanic bat- 


LE TTERS. 


2 33 


tery puts a trembling pulse in the withered 
limb. And what are great minds but galvanic 
batteries ? 

O blessed letters ! that combine in one 
All ages past, and make one live with all. 

Samuel Daniel. 

Protagoras says that man is the measure of 
the universe, navraov xpriparGov p^rpov ar- 
0poD7toS. The universe is unfolded in accordance 
with the unfolding of the intellect. A period 
receives its character from the character of its 
thinkers and teachers. The universe of Ptolemy 
was different from the universe of Copernicus. 
As learning has enlarged the capacity of the 
intellect, the intellect has enlarged the boundary 
of the cosmos. A period reflects the scholar¬ 
ship of man as the water reflects the image of 
the star. 

And how countries become endeared to 
mankind by the wealth of thought. What a 
peculiar fascination is thrown about the hills 
and streams, the caves and glens, the castles and 
temples by the inspired genius ! Who does not 
feel a deeper interest in Scotland because of 
the liquid melody that gushed from the heart of 
Robert Burns ? who does not hold a warmer re¬ 
gard for Ireland because of the entrancing music 
which flowed from the lyre of Thomas Moore? 


234 A pPLICA TION A ND A CHIE YEMEN T. 

What makes Hellas the most attractive 
country in Europe to the liberal scholar but its 
learning and culture? How beautiful and 
charming it is because of the epic grandeur of 
Hesiod and Homer, and of the lyrical sweetness 
of Arion and Pindar. How interesting and 
attractive it is because of the brilliant comedies 
of her gifted writers and the powerful dramas 
of Sophocles and yEschylus. The intellectual 
triumphs of such inspired masters have made 
this land classical and beautiful forever. 

What grace and charm, what interest and 
fascination in history, by Thucydides and 
Xenophon ; what beauty and imagery, what 
logic and power in oratory, by HLschines and 
Demosthenes! And then what astonishing 
advancement and magnificent achievement in 
philosophy and mathematics, in architecture and 
statuary, with the genius of beauty crowning 
the marble. Here intellect exhibited its greatest 
puissance and its highest splendor, and Hellas 
blooms in History as the richest flower of all the 
nations of antiquity, scattering a mental fra¬ 
grance through the passing centuries most 
pleasing and stimulating to humanity. 

Wherever literature consoles sorrow, or assuages pain, . . . 
there is exhibited in its noblest form the immortal influence of 
Athens.— Macaulay. 


LE TTERS. 


235 


Seneca remarks, as the soil cannot be pro¬ 
ductive without culture, so the mind without 
culture can never produce good fruit. It is 
by cultivation that we have fields of wheat and 
corn and meadows deep and green instead of 
the lonely stretches of the unbroken wilder¬ 
ness. It is only by cultivation that we have 
the valuable products of the vineyard and the 
orchard instead of the waste land harboring 
and nourishing the wild beast. And so cultiva¬ 
tion is to develop the resources of the mind 
and make it vigorous and productive in the 
widening circle of high-born activities. So 
cultivation is to unfold the virtues of the soul, 
and make it beautiful and winning in the 
crowded walks of earnest toil. It is to plough 
deep in the soil that smells of the heavenly 
country, and to make the mind teem with rich 
thought upon all weighty subjects. Shake¬ 
speare, touching this matter, says: 

-'T is the mind that makes the body rich ; 

And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds. 

So honor peereth in the meanest habit. 

We may say that education is the unfolding 
and training of the intellect. It is giving the 
individual the possession of himself. It is his 
discipline and equipment when the campaign 



236 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT . 

is calling for soldiers. It is like breaking the 
horse to the saddle or the harness, and showing 
what is noble and valuable in him. It is like 
drawing the bow with the direction of the eye, 
and sending the feathered arrow upon an import¬ 
ant errand. It is the anvil where the workman 
fashions the shoe, and forges the chain, and 
welds the heavy tire for the chariot-wheel. It is 
the factory where the artisan spins the cotton, 
and weaves the silk, and drops from the great 
loom the elegant fabric. It is the means to 
make a full man, a strong man ; one who shall 
be competent and efficient amidst the pressing 
necessities and manifold activities of this world. 

Education is the means to develop intellec¬ 
tual strength and reveal important truth. It is 
not only the mental discipline which evolves 
fine thought, but the moral culture which un¬ 
folds sterling character. It is the spreading of 
all the canvas of the ship to catch the breeze. 
It is the ploughing of all the fallow ground to 
raise the valued crop. It is the bringing into 
activity all the mental powers, and into promi¬ 
nence all the moral virtues; and it is not 
strange that Bacon should observe that reading 
makes a full man, conference a ready man, and 
writing an exact man ; and that Disraeli should 
declare that we prefer books to pounds, and 


LETTERS . 


2 37 


love manuscripts better than florins, and prefer 
pamphlets to war-horses. 

Learning is the prerequisite of all advance¬ 
ment. Without it the fleece would not be 
shorn, the flax would not be spun. Without it 
the quarry would not be opened, the forest 
would not be removed. Without it the iron 
would not be melted, the marble would not be 
chiselled. Without it the brass would not be 
shaped, the wood would not be carved. With¬ 
out it the earth would not be ploughed, the seas 
would not be sailed. What avenues of labor 
and triumph would be closed, what vocations 
of interest and importance would be deserted, 
what mental pursuits and philanthropic activi¬ 
ties would be abandoned, and what dignified 
manhood and amiable womanhood would com¬ 
mence to disappear by the voracious tooth of 
consuming vice ! 

With the advance of education and literature 
oratory becomes elegant and winning. 


There is, first, the literature of knowledge ; and, secondly, 
the literature of power. The function of the first is to teach ; 
the function of the second is to move. 

De Quincey. 


All musical diction, becoming gesture, natural 
emphasis, and proper expression are to the 


238 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

thought what the setting is to the diamond. The 
orator is a poet as well as a thinker, a delineator 
as well as a logician, and resembles the painter 
evolving from the disposition of colors the 
picture which attracts and inspires. We are 
apt to disregard the subtle power of the look 
and tone, the attitude and expression, and all 
the winning graces of oratory. These help the 
speaker to present his thought and control his 
audience, as the harmony of sweet sounds helps 
the musician to captivate and possess the criti¬ 
cal assembly. 

The purpose of learning and culture then is 
the unfolding and enriching of humanity. It 
is the cultivating and producing the best things 
in society and the noblest principles in govern¬ 
ment. The intellectual activity and moral 
refinement of the people in the present are due 
to education and religion. The influence and 
inspiration of the college and the temple are 
manifest in all the avenues of struggle and 
triumph. This period, as a sequence, is active 
and progressive; it heaves with intense excite¬ 
ment, and glows with a mental radiance, and 
it pays honor to the latest triumphs of the con¬ 
quering intellect. 

Science is investigating the domain of matter, 
and revealing the affluence of nature; Inven- 


LETTERS. 


239 


tion is striding forward with its undeviating 
laws and harnessed wheels, giving mankind the 
benefits of its achievements; Liberty, with its 
bosom scarred and powdered, is enlarging its 
beneficent dominion; and Religion, dropped 
from the portals of heaven, is arousing the 
powers and virtues of society in behalf of rec¬ 
titude and morality, is encouraging the minis¬ 
tries which tend to purify and exalt humanity, 
and from the crumbling gates of the sepulchre 
is pointing to the uncovered hills of the immor¬ 
tal country. 


ATTAINMENT. 


There is nothing more encouraging to the 
thinker and the toiler than attainment. It is 
a fact not to be controverted that success in 
rewarding effort arouses ambition and stim¬ 
ulates industry. It excites reciprocal interest 
between individuals of various orders of talent. 
It makes the hills resound with the rumble of 
cars as they roll with ceaseless activity through 
exuberant valleys. It dots the seas with ships, 
and unites different countries with the chain 
of commercial interest. It opens the mam¬ 
moth warehouse, startles the roar of ponderous 
machinery, unlocks the wheels of diversified 
traffic, and accelerates the tread of human 
industry. It encourages the study and pro¬ 
motion of literature and art, philosophy and 
law; and hangs the lamps of learning and re¬ 
ligion along the darkened ways of life. 

Men are endowed with certain faculties for 
certain vocations. With variety of pursuit 
there is variety of talent. This fills the spheres 
of multifarious employment with constant ac- 


240 


A T TA IN ME N T. 


241 


tivity. With diversity of powers we have diver¬ 
sity of accomplishments. Thus the world is 
interested in different occupations, and cheered 
with different attainments. The man who 
chooses that calling for which he has ability, 
if faithful and persevering, will strike the avenue 
of success. He pushes along this road with 
springing step when he learns the secret of 
adjusting his talents to his labors; for then his 
pursuit is his pleasure. Emerson says that the 
crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a 
bias to that pursuit which finds him in employ¬ 
ment and happiness. 

There will be trials and anxieties, miscalcula¬ 
tions and disappointments. But these are to 
test certain qualities and show certain attri¬ 
butes. It is the lashing of the storm which 
exhibits the grandeur and sublimity of the 
main. The greatest champion wins the fiercest 
battles. He masters the hardest circumstances 
in the campaign that is to advance his business 
or learning, commerce or religion. The con¬ 
flict unfolds hidden power, and shows how vast 
are the resources which drop gold into the 
empty coffer. And this success, while it stim¬ 
ulates advancement and gratifies ambition, and 
brings leaf and fruit out of the intellectual 

fibres of a great tree in the mortal dominion, 
16 


242 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

gives heart and hope to others who are striving 
to possess the attainable. 

There are times when the thunders of adver¬ 
sity will break over mankind. They will imagine 
the ground on which they are standing, is moved 
and shaken. Then material possessions pass 
from their hands like morning vapor from the 
vales. But defeat sharpens the intellect, and 
arouses the ingenuity; then with the faculties 
equipped and the energies disciplined, there is 
another contest and another victory. The eagle 
trains her brood for flying by throwing them 
from the nest, then sweeping down, darting 
under them, and bearing them back on her 
wings. 

The moony shield, far flashing, on whose face 
Is seen emblazed the bird which educates 
Her unquill’d infants.— Tasso. 

So men are sometimes trained and fitted by 
adversity for the performance of great things 
in some realm, demanding the greatest ability 
and the loftiest virtue. Colton observes that 
he who has never known adversity is but par¬ 
tially acquainted with others or with himself. 

One reason why many meet with failure is 
that they have chosen vocations for which they 
have no capacity. They have neglected to study 
their own nature and disposition to learn the 


A TTAINMENT. 


243 


places they are fitted to occupy. Many have a 
false pride and an overweening egotism, and 
they imagine they can find success where others 
meet with failure. Nothing but an experiment 
will prove to them they are mistaken, and that 
their success lies in a vocation of a very different 
character. There is nothing but disappointment 
and mortification for those who rush into trades 
and professions without thought and discrimi¬ 
nation with regard to fitness. The timber that 
would make a mallet would not answer for a 
whipstock. The leather that would be suitable 
for a saddle would not be proper for a gaiter. 
In the forest we have oak and elm, walnut and 
hickory, all differing in their peculiar qualities, 
and yet all useful for different purposes. In 
the far-reaching operations of multiplex indus¬ 
try, cedar cannot take the place of maple, nor 
can maple take the place of cedar. 

We need to realize that all labor is honorable 
and ennobling, and that the farmer and the 
statesman, the artisan and the attorney, the 
merchant and the theologian, are entitled to 
' equal respect if they possess equal virtue. And 
poverty, regarded as a hindrance to success by 
many, is sometimes a condition for the unfold¬ 
ing of those faculties and the quickening of 
those energies which give men character and 


244 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

influence. The majority of those who have been 
successful, occupying places of distinction and 
usefulness, have come up through the struggles 
of penury and the strictures of misfortune, and 
know, by the cost, how to value their possessions 
or attainments. We see this in Lawrence the 
merchant, in Peabody the banker, in Fulton the 
inventor, in Meyerbeer the composer, in Nicho¬ 
las Poussin the painter, and in Richard Cobden 
the statesman,—all contributing by their attain¬ 
ments to enrich and elevate the world. 

After a man has determined his vocation he 
should appreciate and honor the hours as they 
come with their opportunities and benedictions. 
He should be diligent and faithful; sowing 
when the furrow beckons, and reaping when 
the harvest ripens. A man may possess brilliant 
talent, but without persevering effort he cannot 
possess the attainable. Talent in the head, like 
rain in the cloud, is not very useful unless it 
comes down in the furrows of our pursuits. 

We value the sun because it quickens and 
invigorates the organic kingdom, making it 
blossom and produce to satisfy a yearning desire. 
But if the sun were hidden behind dark clouds, 
and moved like a muffled sentinel on his rounds 
of silence and isolation, the flower would not 
bloom and the grain would not ripen. Talent 


A TTAINMENT. 


245 


then, to be of any usefulness or importance, must 
be uncovered and called into proper exercise. 
The constant hammering of the pile drives it 
deep into the earth ; then it resists the wave 
and welcomes the ship. 

From the ranks of toil have sprung the men 
who have thus studied and labored with dili¬ 
gence and fidelity, and have become conspicu¬ 
ous and venerated. By earnest study, when 
freed from their daily labor, they arose to be 
poets and inventors, chemists and naturalists, 
statesmen and preachers, giving mankind their 
best thought. Milton was the son of a scrivener, 
Talfourd the son of a brewer, and Gifford the 
son of a grocer, while Newcomen was a sturdy 
blacksmith, Stephenson a locomotive fireman, 
and Chantrey a journeyman carver. From the 
mortar rose Faraday the noted chemist,and John 
Keats the eminent poet, while from the counter 
came Morgan the popular governor and indus¬ 
trious senator, and Starr King the brilliant 
lecturer and esteemed preacher. We honor 
and admire the sons of toil whose nobility is 
found in their genius to originate or in their 
talent to execute, and who, when the doors of 
business were closed, and the gates of traffic 
were locked, lighted their candles, and began 
to climb the heights of improvement and at- 


246 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tainment. It is toil which brings forth their 
hidden power, shows their regal nature, and 
passes them into the ranks of success and honor. 
They emerge from the limitations of the Actual 
into the glories of the Possible. 

Man succeeds when he concentrates his facul¬ 
ties and energies upon his business or profession, 
and looks after the smallest duties as well as the 
greatest requirements. With method and punct¬ 
uality, with order and discretion, with unflagging 
industry and unyielding perseverance, success 
cheers his efforts. There is no obstacle so 
great, no barrier so high which he cannot over¬ 
come by proper effort. Those palaces reared 
of solid marble for the distinguished personages 
of antiquity seemed to defy the ravages of 
decay. But after the flight of centuries we find 
the hard stone cracking and crumbling, and 
the green blade shooting through the smallest 
aperture. So men by industry and persever¬ 
ance can remove the rock of difficulty and 
discouragement that lies in their path. It can 
be drilled by the steel-like penetration of truth, 
and blasted by the explosive energy of thought. 
In the place where this rock stood defying the 
ploughshare of cultivation, the flower of attain¬ 
ment blooms; and the fruit of progress comes 
to maturity and ripeness. 


A TTA IN ME N T. 


247 


By this struggle and determination men over¬ 
come difficulties and beckon attainments. Bul- 
wer and Disraeli both failed in their first efforts 
in literature and their first speeches in Parlia¬ 
ment. But they had courage and persever¬ 
ance, and they became ultimately eminent as 
politicians and popular as authors. Curran 
stuck in his first speech, and Savonarola broke 
down in his first sermon, and both were com¬ 
pelled to struggle with shadows in the valley of 
defeat and humiliation. But they summoned 
an heroic courage, and by persevering industry 
the former became a brilliant orator, and the 
latter arose a powerful preacher. Patrick Henry 
at first halted and hesitated, and Daniel Web¬ 
ster seemed to be uncertain and inefficient. 
There was water enough in the boiler, and ca¬ 
pacity enough in the engine, but the steam was 
not made. By rigid discipline and determined 
effort they both became not only ready speak¬ 
ers, but renowned orators, powerful and sweep¬ 
ing before juries, and as majestic and swaying 
in Congress as Jupiter on Olympus. 

When Frederic assumed command of the 
army at the battle of Mollwitz, and passed 
under his first fire, he became confused and de¬ 
moralized, and with the advice of some of his 
frightened lieutenants he retreated hurriedly 


248 APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and shamefully from the field. Schwerin, the 
valiant marshal, remained with granite-like firm¬ 
ness, and with his skilful handling of the solid 
battalions of Prussians, he routed the Austri¬ 
ans and covered his arms with the light of 
Hctory. When the king at a late hour heard 
in his lonely refuge of this unexpected triumph 
he was chopfallen and chagrined over his igno¬ 
ble performance ; but, resolute and determined, 
he afterwards became one of the most success- 
ful of commanders. 

Men who succeed must have not only ambi¬ 
tion and talent, but fixedness of purpose. This 
lack kept the world from the possession and 
enjoyment of a great deal from such men as 
Mackintosh and Coleridge. These men had 
intellects which were subtle and capacious, but 
they lacked the concentration and perseverance 
of such men as Newton and Palissy, Galileo 
and Handel. Had these men, with their mag¬ 
nificent abilities, given their attention and 
industry to a single pursuit, how much greater 
would have been their accomplishments. They 
frittered away a vast deal of their time and 
power in uncertain vocations, changing from 
Literature to Philosophy, and from Science to 
Government, and yet they were giants. 

With this fixedness of purpose, and with 


\ 


A TTAINMENT. 


249 


activity and persistence, men succeed and at¬ 
tain their highest wishes, as they give their 
attention to the smallest details. We see this 
illustrated in the labors and triumphs of noted 
sculptors like Chantrey and Hosmer, and of 
renowned painters like Landseer and Bonheur 
in their marvellous pictures of the animal crea¬ 
tion. We see it in the preparation and arrange¬ 
ment of eminent jurists like Ellsworth and 
Dana, like Marshall and Story, who never 
flagged nor wavered in their immense labors. 
We see it in the career and success of promi¬ 
nent statesmen like Canning and O’Connell, 
like Russell and Brougham, who were incessant 
workers through the sweep of years. It char¬ 
acterized the movements of famous generals 
like Marlborough and Wellington, Thomas and 
Sherman, who knew that the greatest battles 
often turn on the smallest pivots. It was 
prominent and noticeable in the great works of 
Buffon and Linnaeus, and of Joshua Reynolds 
and Michael Angelo, whose richest power was 
sometimes manifested in the gentlest stroke. 
It is further illustrated in the successful engage¬ 
ments of Blake and Nelson, of Decatur and 
Perry, who took their ships into the awful 
action, like enraged demons belching fire. 

The men of energy and persistence are the 


250 A PPLICA TION A ND A CHIE VE MEN T. 

men who give us all our inventions and refor¬ 
mations, our discoveries and improvements. 
The planet, in order to produce the harvest 
for the husbandman, is compelled to struggle 
against the opposition of snow and frost, and 
to grind their fetters to pieces. So the indi¬ 
vidual, in order to produce those things which 
will assist in stimulating business and com¬ 
merce, or in widening the dominion of science 
and philosophy, is necessitated to combat oppo¬ 
sition and disarm prejudice. Those who are 
not satisfied w r ith present attainments, but are 
working for laudable acquirements by which 
the race is uplifted and enriched, are the men 
who thrill the world with heroic labors and 
noble triumphs. 

History presents no grander picture of strug¬ 
gle and triumph than we behold in the patriots 
of the American Revolution. The crisis not 
only demanded but exhibited men of exalted 
character and illustrious attainments. What 
ability and learning, what purity and sagacity, 
in men like Adams and Jefferson, Mason and 
Hamilton, and their brilliant compatriot, Rich¬ 
ard Henry Lee. Here were men like Robert 
Morris with conspicuous ability as a financier, 
and Edmund Randolph, with pre-eminent talent 
as a jurist. Here were men like Ellsworth and 


A TTAINMENT. 


251 


» 

Gerry, Sherman and Walton, Clinton and 
Knox, and the Livingstons, all distinguished 
for their extraordinary attainments and es¬ 
teemed for their valuable services. 

Here were men like Pinckney, of great and 
varied accomplishments, who displayed almost 
unequalled talents as a lawyer ; and men like 
Rutledge, of high and attractive acquirements, 
who exhibited almost unrivalled abilities as an 
orator. And among this number rises in the 
most conspicuous manner Jay, the learned 
scholar and unsullied patriot, Jay the pro¬ 
found jurist and illustrious statesman, and the 
first Chief-Justice of the United States. 

Consider their eminent capacity, their excel¬ 
lent scholarship, their unquestioned probity, 
and their disinterested patriotism. Behold 
their inexorable courage and unremitting per¬ 
severance, working on with patience and fidelity 
till the land of Columbia became the land of 
Liberty. With their attainments and virtues 
they have passed into history to encourage and 
inspire the latest generation. 

Montesquieu says that success in most things 
depends on knowing how long it takes to suc¬ 
ceed. Confucius adds that our greatest glory 
is not in never falling, but in rising every time 
we fall. This is the secret of success, being 


2 52 APPLICA riON AND A CHIP VEM ENT. 

patient and resolute, waiting for the harvest to 
ripen before thrusting in the sickle. It takes 
time for the twig to rise into the majesty and 
glory of the tree which furnishes beams for the 
house or masts for the ship. Think how long 
it has taken our merchants and physicians, our 
lawyers and inventors, our painters and sculp¬ 
tors, our historians and statesmen to become 
successful and prominent. With pluck and 
work, with ambition and persistence, never 
yielding to discouraging circumstances, man at 
last climbs to his rightful position, and with his 
attainments becomes an important factor in the 
advance of society. 

Stephenson was the son of an humble collier. 
He mended shoes and repaired clocks, and 
finally began to study the engine, with all its 
complications and relations, till he had mastered 
its construction. He had an unusual aptitude 
for mechanics, and the problem of constructing 
a locomotive began to engage his attention, and 
he toiled amidst trying circumstances, and 
when the wheels of his locomotive turned they 
carried the age forward to new triumphs and 
progress. 

Flaxman, when young, was an invalid, and 
being unfitted for that active business which 
required robust energy, he resorted to drawing. 


A T TA INMEN T. 


2 53 


While his father sold plaster casts in one of the 
crowded streets of London, he read the lines of 
Homer with a fascinating interest, and endeav¬ 
ored to embody his famous heroes in pictures 
which took shape from his chalk. The warriors 
of Greece and Troy stirred his nature, and 
they appeared in the plaster as by magic, with 
a poetic expression. When but fifteen sum¬ 
mers were reached, though still frail and weak, 
he abandoned his crutches and entered the 
Royal Academy. He studied with assiduity 
and labored with persistence ; he became popu¬ 
lar with the students and the teachers, and he 
gained by hard work and strokes of genius 
several prizes. He arose above physical weak¬ 
ness and struggling poverty, above discourage¬ 
ments and embarrassments of the most crushing 
nature, and became the greatest sculptor in 
England, and as such was honored and es¬ 
teemed in the aesthetic circles of Europe. 

We witness the greatness of ability and per¬ 
severance in Doran’s pathetic story of the fearful 
struggle and final triumph of Edmund Kean. 
In his childhood no kind face beamed upon 
him, no warm heart reached after him, and 
he was pushed by the cold hand of fate into 
the humblest places in life. He had wonderful 
powers of interpretation and mimicry ; but he 


254 A P PLICA TION A ND A CHIE VEM ENT. 


was in the lower stratum of society, was un¬ 
known to those of great names and honored 
positions, and was necessitated to a fearful 
combat with unrelenting poverty. We see him 
on foot strolling through Scotland and Eng¬ 
land ; and striving for success and position by 
his impersonations behind the footlights. Fi¬ 
nally, foot-sore and weary, we find him in Lon¬ 
don, having no prestige of success and renown, 
seeking an audience with the manager of the 
Drury, sneered at by the selfish, and mistreated 
by the jealous, of this noted establishment. 

The strolling actor was refused an engage¬ 
ment. Look at him in his humble quarters in 
Cecil Street. Upon the walls are gathering not 
only the shadows of loneliness but destitution. 
The plate is empty and unpromising; and love 
back of genius and fidelity, is reaching for 
bread for the family. Kemble and Huddart 
had just been there and left the stage, with 
their histrionic celebrity. And here the lonely 
actor importunes the manager again; and 
finally, with the pertinacity of Talma, he suc¬ 
ceeds in making an engagement to play Shy- 
lock before a critical audience. The snow was 
falling that afternoon, and a chill that accom¬ 
panied the evening fell upon a lonely spirit. 
Through the snow and slush the unknown actor 


I 


A TTAINMENT. 


255 


wended his way to the exacting greenroom, 
friendless and moneyless. The hour had come ; 
the curtain was lifted ; and before it fell the 
struggles of long years were crowned with 
thrilling success, and the world learned that 
there was an artist to take the place of Better- 
ton and Garrick. 

We are amazed at the potentialities of genius 
and labor. Man goes through a course of study 
and discipline, he passes from experiment to 
observation, and from the smallest beginnings 
he attains the grandest results. 

To climb steep hills 
Requires slow pace at first. 

Shakespeare. 

Gradually he comes to a knowledge of the 
properties and affinities of matter, and beholds 
by a combination of certain forces the desired 
object leaping out of darkness and astonishing 
the million. With constant searching, with 
patient plodding, bringing into operation the 
laws of order and correspondence, he constructs 
a machine or projects a philosophy, he makes 
a discovery or preaches a sermon, he writes a 
poem or paints a picture, which widens the 
focus of intelligence and enlarges the stream 
of happiness. In this way we arrive at the 


256 A PPLICA TION A ND A CHIE YEMEN T. 


benign results of all intellectual acquisition, 
which, rising from the plane of the actual and 
touching the plane of the possible, gives wings 
to Fancy, and wheels to Ambition, glory to 
Scholarship, and power to Religion, and cloth¬ 
ing every material object with the living ex¬ 
pression of thought. 

Gutenberg carved certain letters upon some 
blocks, and passed paper over them ; an im¬ 
pression was produced, and printing was in¬ 
vented. It was a little seed, but it developed 
a giant tree©whfch has yielded luscious fruit 
for the hungry mind. It was a small actuality, 
holding a great possibility, which mankind 
should recognize as it should advance with the 
click of its machinery. It was a small stream 
without sufficient power to turn a miller’s 
wheel or float a lumberman’s raft; but now it 
is a mighty river, with its tributaries and 
affluents, bearing upon its heaving bosom the 
fleets of every nation. 

Newcomen studied and labored till he erected 
the steam-engine; but it was considered of 
little importance till the maker of mathematical 
instruments in Glasgow touched it with his 
creative energy, and then it shook the globe. 
How insignificant the actual, but how prodigious 
the possible! See the advance of knowledge 



A TTA IN ME N T. 


257 


in evaporation and condensation, from a crude 
machine up to the great engine which throws 
the shuttle and turns the spindle; propelling 
the locomotive which links state with state, and 
the steamship which unites continent with con¬ 
tinent, and filling this active century with 
mechanical triumphs. From the rickety ma¬ 
chine, invented to generate steam, has come 
down to us the iron steed, harnessed in brass 
and shod with steel, panting like a battle horse, 
and throwing clouds of breath from his dis¬ 
tended nostrils ; neighing loudly and wildly as 
he gallops with a thundering tread over the 
echoing land, with an eye glowing and flashing 
like a star, and the earth trembling on its 
orbit. 

We look upon the child, but we do not see 
the man behind the aprons and buttons. We 
survey the outward, but cannot discern the in¬ 
ward ; and though pleased with the simplicity 
and openness of childhood, we are unable to 
discover the distinguishing qualities of man¬ 
hood. The child holds within the depths of 
an undeveloped personality those powers of 
intellect and principles of morality which give 
the man in the future character and influence. 
The child gives, in general, no clue to its inborn 
greatness and unseen power, and to the ruling 

17 


258 APPLICA TION AND A CHIE YEMENT. 


faculty of its future career, till it begins to un¬ 
fold and mature, acting upon its own inclination 
and responsibility. The place of its birth is no 
indication of the character of its endowment 
and capacity, though it be in the cottage among 
the humble or in the palace among the noted. 
Nature is democratic, and from the most remote 
places in society men of astonishing genius, 
comprehensive wisdom, unimpeachable integri¬ 
ty, and dominating energy are called to be the 
world’s teachers and benefactors. 

Shakespeare was not considered a child of 
unusual brightness, though the pride of an 
honest wool-dealer, and as he played around an 
humble fireside no one prophesied for him 
eternal renown. But back of those serene eye¬ 
brows there was the capacious intellect which, 
after the turbulent period of profligate boy¬ 
hood, began with amazing genius to portray 
the phases of character, and to throw such great 
thought into poetic expression as to move the 
world. 

Beethoven, born of humble parents, seemed 
to be as frail as the birdling in its nest, holding 
notes of delicious music in its throat. His father 
was a singer, environed by poverty and embar¬ 
rassed by misfortune, and could assist but little 
in the unfolding and exercise of the musical 


A TTA IN MEN T. 


259 


powers of that child whose triumphs were to 
stir the future. He grew up with talent for 
playing and composing, and from circumstances 
that were fettering and discouraging he arose 
by his genius and industry, and by his sympho¬ 
nies and harmonies he showed the high place 
he occupied among the greatest masters whose 
strains ravished and thrilled the soul. 

Napoleon was not regarded as a child of un¬ 
common intelligence, and gave no evidence of 
that precocity which sometimes distinguishes 
the great mind in the germ. He was frail for 
a time with all the elements of speedy resolu¬ 
tion and enduring energy, unseen and unknown, 
and would not weigh as much as the armor of 
Louis the Fifteenth. But he possessed a tower- 
ing genius, which began to light its fires and 
exhibit its powers as years began to multiply, 
and in time the son of the Corsican outweighed 
not only the throne of the Bourbons, but, as a 
brilliant writer says, he tipped Europe in the 
balance. 

All this illustrates that mighty possibilities 
are unfolded in little actualities. Mankind are 
endowed with godlike powers, and they exhibit 
the dignity and grandeur of their natures when 
they are laboring and achieving. There are 
splendid talents and charming virtues possessed 


26O APPLICATION AND ACHIEVEMENT. 


by many unknown to renown and glory, but 
who would shine like stars in the firmament if 
some pressing emergency should call them 
forth. And it is interesting to contemplate 
men with such talents and virtues, rising in 
different periods to break an iron fetter, to 
write an inspiring verse, or to shape an in¬ 
genious wheel, and thus help the race to the 
possession of the attainable. 

With such an endowment and such an oppor¬ 
tunity man emerges from the perplexity and 
anarchy of ignorance ; he comes into the great¬ 
ness and freedom of knowledge ; he projects 
himself into harmonious relations with the Cre¬ 
ator and the Universe. Not satisfied with the 
actual, but desiring the possible, man cultivates 
those talents and unfolds those virtues which 
clothe him in dignity and puissance, and put 
him into places of power and influence. Leav¬ 
ing the actual and reaching for the possible, he 
endures disappointments and adversities, faces 
opposition and detraction ; he works into the 
heart of Nature and of Science and steals their 
secrets. And this desire for the attainable 
stimulates study and research, advances phi¬ 
losophy and government, and puts into the 
possession of the world all the treasures of art. 

Whenever the tree stops growing it begins 


A TTAINMENT. 


26l 


to exhibit the symptoms of decay. And if man 
desires to retain his power and influence, he 
must continue his activity. Life is estimated 
by the number and character of the faculties 
and affections which give beauty and vitality 
to the moral and the mental in our possession. 
Seal up one of these faculties, or root out one 
of these affections, and you destroy one of the 
tributaries which helps to swell the great 
stream of that life which is intellectual and phi¬ 
lanthropic. Remove a vigorous root from a 
growing tree, and you close a channel of vital 
nourishment; and after a while you will behold 
the luxuriant foliage losing its summer green¬ 
ness. Life is vigorous and joyous, putting 
forth its leaves of promise and its fruits of suc¬ 
cess, only when the faculties and affections are 
kept in a healthy condition, and are exercised 
upon worthy objects. Then man rises out of 
the actual and passes into the possible, demon¬ 
strating his capabilities, and giving us intima¬ 
tions of the wondrous power which sleeps in his 
brain like the unspent energy of the sun. 

Too low they build who build beneath the stars. 

Young. 

In all this advance we are amazed at the 
great diversity of talent and genius in the same 


262 APPLICA TION AND A CHIE VEMEN T. 


profession. Witness this in lawyers like Wil¬ 
liam Wirt with his searching analysis and ele¬ 
gant rhetoric, and Rufus Choate with his 
sweeping argument and stormy eloquence. 
Witness this in painters like Hogarth who de¬ 
picted the manners and follies of the period, 
and Turner who portrayed the beauty and 
glory of the landscape. Witness this in musi¬ 
cians like Gottschalk with his entrancing ability, 
and Paganini with his captivating genius. 
Again, witness this in preachers like Schleier- 
macher with his scholarly attainments and in¬ 
tellectual sympathies, and Farrar with his ex¬ 
tensive learning and liberal expression. How 
different are these personages in their talent 
and ability, and how equally successful and 
esteemed. 

Look at the triumphs of labor in every noble 
calling. Wilkie declared that the single element 
of all the progressive movements of his pencil 
was persevering industry. Beethoven affirmed 
that no barriers were erected which could limit 
aspiring talent and progressive effort. Look at 
the prodigious labors of Gibbon and Bancroft 
in history, and of Humboldt and Agassiz in 
science. Look at the immense industry of 
Mozart so elegant and regal, and Leibnitz so 
profound and exhaustive. Behold the untiring 


A T TA INMEN T. 


263 


activity and the wonderful success of Rubens, 
so versatile, powerful, and brilliant; and Beecher, 
so gifted, masterly, and eloquent, and undoubt¬ 
edly the greatest preacher of his age. 

Voltaire remarks that the discovery of what 
is true and the practice of what is good are the 
two most important objects of philosophy. 
With a comprehensive knowledge of philosophy, 
man should seek to possess the true and the 
good, and enjoy their golden fruitage. The 
seed should be planted in the opening of the 
springtime when the heavens are benignant, 
and not at the ending of the summer when the 
grass is withering and the leaves are falling. 
When the farmer plucks the yellow corn from 
the rustling husk, he is aware that the seed was 
planted when the season was propitious and in¬ 
viting. Cultivation should begin in the early 
period of life, the seed of knowledge and good¬ 
ness sown in waiting furrows, and then a har¬ 
vest of moral virtues and intellectual attain¬ 
ments will cheer the autumn of this existence. 

This is the art and law of life unfolded to us 
by that philosophy which would direct us to 
cultivate every noble faculty, and enter into 
every worthy service by which we pass from 
the actual to the greatness and glory of the 
possible. 


264 A PPLICA TION A ND A CHIP YEMEN T. 

Hazlitt remarks that the size of a building is 
not to be judged of from the last stone that is 
added to it. The influence of an individual 
whose talents and energies are devoted to those 
things which are to refine society and advance 
humanity, cannot be estimated by the closing 
effort. We must consider his principles and 
pursuits through life; and note his relation to 
great movements, and his interest in grand 
measures, in order to calculate his influence 
upon civilization. And we shall discover that 
whether he is endowed with the faculty that is 
inventive or poetic, or gifted with the language 
that is logical or rhetorical, he exerts an in¬ 
fluence that extends. His work may be done 
in an humble position, but it will tell upon the 
revealing future. Out of this buried seed 
comes the attractive flower. 

By arduous study and indefatigable industry, 
Fulton was enabled to launch his boat on the 
Hudson. It was a splendid triumph for his 
day, and to the thoughtful it must have been 
the precursor of the coming of marvellous 
developments in models and mechanics. The 
incredulous people smiled at the notion of 
applying steam as a propelling power upon our 
rivers and oceans. But the wheels turned, the 
boat moved, the multitude was confounded, 


A TTA1NMENT. 


265 


the inventor was immortalized. It was a little 
actuality holding a wonderful possibility. It 
ploughed its furrow and sowed its seed of fire, 
and fifty-five years after, to the utter amaze¬ 
ment of mankind, the Monitor blossomed 
above the waves near Fortress Monroe! 

The labors of the present will tell upon the 
character of the future. The oak that sleeps 
within the tenacious environment of the acorn 
will be an oak when it rises as one of the 
brawny giants of the forest. The virtue sown 
in the field of the world will be cultivated and 
reproduced as virtue in the lives of men, 
though the period of quickening may be dis¬ 
tant. The talent and genius displayed in any 
noble vocation in the present will be admired 
and emulated in the future. If we look back 
into the past we shall see certain individuals 
with transcendent ability wielding an influence 
through the years. 

We shall see men like Apelles the painter, 
Phidias the sculptor, and Aristotle the philos¬ 
opher, reaching down through the centuries 
with a marvellous influence. We shall see 
men like Homer the poet, Socrates the moral¬ 
ist, and Demosthenes the orator, stirring man¬ 
kind in later periods with their regal power. 
These men by their attainments animate and 


266 A PPLICA T10N A ND A CHIP V EM ENT. 


encourage all in the present who are following 
the pursuits in which they exhibited their great¬ 
ness and received their glory. See how Ed¬ 
mund Burke studied the speeches of the mas¬ 
ters of eloquence in classical antiquity, and 
became the most elegant orator since the days 
of Marcus Tully. There are lines of thought 
which we can now trace back to the brain of 
the most distinguished philosopher of Athens; 
and we do not wonder that the popular essay¬ 
ist of Concord should say that Plato is philos¬ 
ophy and philosophy is Plato. 

Man should not be contented with the 
actual when he may evolve the possible. He 
is in the possession of virtue undeveloped and 
talent unexercised, and he needs to be brought 
into that honorable service which will exhibit 
the most imposing qualities. In the actual 
marble sleeps the possible statue, which, rising 
into beauty and majesty, speaks with a thrill¬ 
ing eloquence to the admiring people. And 
so beneath the physical outline of man there 
lies a form that may be noble and kingly await¬ 
ing to be relieved from the flinty shackles of 
ignorance and crudity, and to emerge into ful¬ 
ness and power. How many inventors and 
reformers, how many leaders and orators are 
hidden under the material vesture, like the 


ATT A INMEN T. 267 

ideal images of Venus and Mercury, Apollo 
and Minerva, in the unchiselled marble. 

The truest wisdom is a resolute determina¬ 
tion, is one of the popular maxims of Napoleon. 
Buxton believed that a man might be very 
much what he pleased, provided he formed a 
noble resolution, and held to it with unshaken 
firmness. It is with such a resolution, noble 
and determined, that man surmounts difficul¬ 
ties, subjects adversities, removes everything 
which hinders and threatens from his path, and 
attains to success and power. 

With courage and determination, accom¬ 
panied by industry and hopefulness, there is 
no opportunity for indolence to hang cobwebs 
about the intellect. Aye, indolence so inviting 
and disappointing, has no opportunity to con¬ 
vert the mind into a workshop of mischief and 
ruin. When indolence takes possession of man, 
misfortune follows his footsteps and grinds the 
jewel of expectancy into powder. Bentham 
and Melanchthon so disposed of their hours for 
labor and repose, that not a moment should be 
wasted by which defeat and calamity are en¬ 
couraged to appear. With the stroke of the 
hour they reanimated their industry, pushed on 
in their studies, and drank from the brimming 
wine-cup of intellectual attainment. 


268 A PPLICA TION A ND A CHI£ VEMEN T. 

Horace declares that life gives nothing to 
man without great labor: 

N't l sine magno 
Vita labore dedit mortalibus. 

Labor sows the good seed, and gathers the 
ample harvest. Labor builds the seething 
forge, and turns out the needed iron. It levels 
the forest, it builds the city, it bridges the 
river, it tunnels the mountain. It reaches from 
the ploughshare up to the grandest machinery, 
and from the alphabet up to the highest learn¬ 
ing. From huts of clay it passes to gorgeous 
palaces and splendid cathedrals, and from vehi¬ 
cles of crudity it enters elegant coaches and 
magnificent steamers. It brings all science and 
philosophy to the doors of the rich and poor, 
and makes the universe unravel her mysteries 
and glories. It opens avenues of inspiration and 
power to every conscientious toiler and deter¬ 
mined thinker, and places the wreath of attain¬ 
ment and honor above their brows. 


THE END. 











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